Why it works: Butter and bread are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 7% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 27,232 recipes. Both carry delta-decalactone, which smells sweet, creamy. The science ↓
Cheese Souffle
Ingredients
Directions
The book gives no oven temperature. The 350°F (175°C) in the steps was added when the recipe was transcribed, as a starting point.
Prepare
Preheat the oven to 350°F (175°C).
Make the base
In a bowl, combine the grated cheese, milk, egg yolks, butter, bread crumbs (or flour), cayenne pepper, and salt.
Bake
Gently fold in the stiffly beaten egg whites.
Pour the mixture into a greased baking dish.
Bake for about 20 minutes until puffed and golden.
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.
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Butter + breadtop 7% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together27,232 recipes
Shared aroma: delta-decalactone (sweet, creamy).
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Milk + buttertop 7% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together81,283 recipes
Shared aroma: (z)-4-heptenal (biscuit, cream).
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Cheese + breadtop 7% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together2,130 recipes
Shared aroma: delta-decalactone (sweet, creamy).
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Cheese + buttertop 8% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together7,962 recipes
Shared aroma: delta-dodecalactone (sweet, creamy).
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Cheese + milktop 10% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together4,426 recipes
Shared aroma: delta-dodecalactone (sweet, creamy).
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 and give the soufflé its light, risen structure.
- Egg yolks
- Enrich the base and help it set into a custard-like texture as it bakes.
- Grated cheese
- Adds rich flavour and fat, and contributes to the set structure.
- Milk
- Provides moisture that forms the body of the cheese base.
- Bread crumbs or flour
- Thickens the base and gives it body so it holds up around the whipped whites.
The step that matters
Gently fold in the stiffly beaten egg whites. Folding preserves the air bubbles in the whipped whites. Stirring or deflating them makes the soufflé fall and rise less, so it bakes flat and dense.
“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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