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Potato Souffle

A baked potato purée folded with butter, milk, and eggs, then baked until fluffy.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 5 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 ↓

Potato Souffle

Ingredients

Directions

The book gives no oven temperature. The 400°F (200°C) in the steps was added when the recipe was transcribed, as a starting point.

Prepare the potatoes

  1. Wash and scrub the potatoes in cold water.

  2. Dry the potatoes with a cloth.

  3. Bake the potatoes in a 400°F (200°C) oven for 30 to 45 minutes until soft. Check doneness by inserting a skewer; they should be soft inside.

  4. Cut the baked potatoes in half and scoop out the insides, keeping the skins intact.

  5. Pass the potato insides through a wire sieve into a bowl.

Make the soufflé base

  1. In a saucepan, combine butter and milk and heat until boiling.

  2. Season with salt and pepper to taste.

  3. Stir in the sifted potato insides until smooth.

  4. Remove from heat and let cool slightly.

  5. Beat in the eggs one at a time until fully incorporated.

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. Potato + peppertop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together8,305 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).

  3. Potato + milktop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together3,611 recipes

    Shared aroma: (e,z)-2,6-nonadienal (cucumber, melon).

  4. Potato + buttertop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together6,456 recipes

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

  5. Butter + eggtop 17% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together118,967 recipes

    Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).

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

What each ingredient does

Potatoes
Provide the starchy bulk and fluffy bulk that gives the soufflé its body.
Butter
Adds richness and fat, giving a smooth, tender texture.
Milk
Adds moisture so the potato mixture becomes smooth and spreadable.
Eggs
Add structure as they set, holding the soufflé together and giving it lift.

The step that matters

Let the base cool slightly before beating in the eggs. If the potato base is still very hot, the eggs can scramble or cook unevenly instead of blending smoothly. Cooling slightly keeps the eggs emulsified and gives an even, airy set.

Swap the potato

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

  1. Capsicumfits about as well
  2. Potatothe original
  3. Asparagusfits about as well
  4. Chivefits less well

Fit is the average pairing score against butter, milk, egg, pepper. 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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