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Veal Souffle

A baked dish of veal folded with beaten egg whites and cream.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 8 ingredients
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Why it works: Butter and milk are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 7% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 81,283 recipes. Both carry (z)-4-heptenal, which smells biscuit, cream. The science ↓

Veal Souffle

Oven, in the book's wordsA hot oven

Ingredients

Directions

The book says “a hot oven”. The 400°F (200°C) in the steps is the modern equivalent, not the book's own figure.

Make the sauce

  1. Melt the butter in a saucepan over low heat without browning.

  2. Add the flour and stir until smooth.

  3. Stir in the cream and milk, cooking until the mixture thickens.

  4. Add the veal to the sauce and heat thoroughly.

  5. Remove from heat and let cool slightly.

Combine and bake

  1. Beat the egg yolks and mix them into the veal and sauce.

  2. In a separate bowl, beat the egg whites until stiff peaks form.

  3. Gently fold the egg whites into the veal mixture.

  4. Pour the mixture into a greased baking dish.

  5. Bake in a preheated oven at 400°F (200°C) for 20 minutes.

Recipe from a historical cookbook (Internet Archive).

Transcribed from a scanned cookbook and modernised for today's kitchens. Where the book gave no heat or time, or said "a moderate oven", the temperatures and times here may be modern equivalents rather than the book's own figures.

Explore the science

The flavor team

The pairs that carry this dish. Each one is judged two ways: how much their aromas overlap, and how often cooks already put them together.

  1. Butter + milktop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together81,283 recipes

    Shared aroma: (z)-4-heptenal (biscuit, cream).

  2. Butter + creamtop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together41,516 recipes

    Shared aroma: delta-dodecalactone (sweet, creamy).

  3. Butter + flourtop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together124,287 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  4. Flour + parsleytop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together16,675 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  5. Flour + milktop 14% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together78,219 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

Butter and flour barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 124,287 recipes: they work on texture and structure more than aroma.

Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs

What each ingredient does

Eggs
Egg whites whipped to stiff peaks trap air, lifting the soufflé as it bakes and sets.
Butter
Melted with flour to form a roux that thickens the sauce and adds richness.
Flour
Forms a roux with butter that thickens the cream and milk into a stable base.
Cream
Adds fat and richness, giving the sauce a smoother, softer texture.
Chopped cooked veal
Provides the main body and flavor of the soufflé base.

The step that matters

Folding the egg whites into the veal mixture. Folding gently keeps the air beaten into the egg whites. Stirring or deflating them makes the soufflé dense and reduces its rise in the oven.

Swap the parsley

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (veal, egg, butter, flour, cream, milk):

  1. Nutmegfits better
  2. Cinnamonfits about as well
  3. Capersfits about as well
  4. Parsleythe original

Fit is the average pairing score against veal, egg, butter, flour, cream, milk. Candidates are from the same food group and used in at least 100 recipes.

“What each ingredient does” and “The step that matters” were written by Claude from this recipe’s own method and reviewed in samples by CompKitchen.

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