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Cheese Souffle

A light, baked cheese soufflé made with eggs, milk, flour, and Parmesan.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 4 ingredients
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Why it works: Flour and milk are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 14% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 78,219 recipes. Both carry isobutyraldehyde, which smells malty, green. The science ↓

Cheese 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 base

  1. Beat the yolks of the eggs well and thin them with a little milk, then add the grated cheese.

  2. Rub the flour into a paste with a little more milk.

  3. Heat the remaining milk in a saucepan until it boils, then stir in the flour paste.

  4. Stir until smooth and creamy, then add the cheese and yolk mixture.

  5. Boil for about a minute until the cheese is fully melted, then remove from heat.

Bake and serve

  1. Whip the egg whites to a stiff froth and gently fold them into the mixture.

  2. Fill paper cases with the preparation and bake for 15 minutes at 400°F (200°C).

  3. Serve immediately.

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

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  2. Milk + parmesan cheesetop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,608 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl 2-methylbutyrate (fruity, apple).

  3. Flour + eggtop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together106,462 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  4. Egg + milktop 18% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together88,785 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).

  5. Egg + parmesan cheesetop 18% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together3,368 recipes

    Shared aroma: 1-octen-3-ol (mushroom, earthy).

Flour and milk barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 78,219 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
Yolks thicken the base and whites, whipped stiff, lift the soufflé as it bakes.
Flour
Forms a paste with milk that thickens the sauce base and gives it body.
Milk
Forms the liquid base of the sauce that the flour thickens.
Parmesan cheese
Adds rich savoury flavour and melts into the base for a creamy texture.

The step that matters

Folding in the egg whites. Whites whipped to a stiff froth trap air that makes the soufflé rise. Folding gently keeps that air in; stirring vigorously deflates the mixture and the soufflé will not rise well.

“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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