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Cheese Souffle

A baked cheese soufflé made with butter, flour, milk, eggs, cheese, salt, and cayenne.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 7 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 ↓

Cheese 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.

Make the base

  1. In a saucepan, melt the butter over medium heat.

  2. Add the flour and stir until smooth, but not browned.

  3. Pour in the milk and add the salt and cayenne.

  4. Cook for 2 minutes.

  5. Remove from heat and stir in the beaten egg yolks and cheese.

  6. Let cool.

Bake and serve

  1. Once cool, fold in the beaten egg whites until combined.

  2. Pour the mixture into a buttered dish that holds 1 quart.

  3. Bake at 400°F (200°C) for 20 to 25 minutes.

  4. Serve immediately after removing from the oven.

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 + cheesetop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together7,962 recipes

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

  3. Cheese + milktop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together4,426 recipes

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

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

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  5. Milk + flourtop 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
Whipped whites trap air that expands in the oven, lifting the soufflé; yolks add richness and set the custard.
Cheese
Adds rich flavour and fat, and its proteins help set the base as it bakes.
Flour
Thickens the butter and milk into a stable base that holds the air from the whites.
Milk
Forms the liquid base with the flour, adding moisture and softness to the custard.
Butter
Fat that combines with the flour to make a roux, adding richness and flavour to the base.

The step that matters

Fold in the egg whites gently. Overmixing knocks out the air trapped in the whites, so the soufflé will not rise well. Fold just until combined, and bake promptly once the mixture is in the dish.

“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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