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Cheese Souffle

A baked cheese soufflé made with butter, flour, milk, cayenne pepper, salt, grated cheese, mustard, egg yolks, and egg whites.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 9 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

Oven, in the book's wordsA moderate oven

Ingredients

Directions

The book says “a moderate oven”. The 350°F (175°C) in the steps is the modern equivalent, not the book's own figure.

Make the base

  1. Melt the butter in a saucepan.

  2. Add the flour, cayenne, and salt, stirring to form a smooth paste.

  3. Gradually add the scalded milk while stirring constantly.

  4. Once well blended, add the grated cheese and remove from heat.

  5. Stir in the beaten egg yolks until well mixed.

Fold and bake

  1. Gently cut and fold in the stiffly beaten egg whites.

  2. Pour the mixture into a well-buttered baking dish.

  3. Bake in a preheated oven at 350°F (175°C) for 20 minutes.

  4. 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. 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. Pepper + mustardtop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together15,430 recipes

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

  4. Milk + cheesetop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together4,426 recipes

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

  5. Cheese + mustardtop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,805 recipes

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

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

What each ingredient does

Egg whites
Whipped into foam, they trap air that lifts the soufflé as it bakes.
Egg yolks
Enrich the base and help set the custard structure as it cooks.
Flour
Thickens the butter and milk into a smooth white sauce that holds the soufflé.
Butter
Forms the fat base for the roux and adds richness.
Grated cheese
Adds savory flavor and fat to the base.
Scalded milk
Liquid that turns the roux into a thick sauce.

The step that matters

Folding in the egg whites. Whites trapped with air give the soufflé its rise. Overmixing or stirring vigorously deflates the foam, so the fold must be gentle and quick to keep the batter light.

Swap the mustard

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

  1. Potatofits better
  2. Capsicumfits better
  3. Asparagusfits better
  4. Mustardthe original

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