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Dessert

Chocolate Souffle

A baked chocolate soufflé made with eggs, butter, sugar, chocolate, bread crumbs, and vanilla.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 6 ingredients
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Why it works: Chocolate and vanilla are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 5% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 10,020 recipes. Both carry sotolon, which smells curry, maple. The science ↓

Chocolate 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

  1. Preheat the oven to 350°F (175°C).

  2. Cream the butter in a bowl.

  3. Gradually stir in the egg yolks, sugar, and melted chocolate.

  4. Soak the bread crumbs in milk or water, then squeeze them dry.

  5. Add the soaked bread to the chocolate mixture.

  6. Stir in vanilla essence and fold in the whipped egg whites until combined.

Bake and serve

  1. Pour the mixture into a buttered pie dish or cake tin.

  2. Bake for 45 minutes and 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. Chocolate + vanillatop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together10,020 recipes

    Shared aroma: sotolon (curry, maple).

  2. Butter + breadtop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together27,232 recipes

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

  3. Sugar + vanillatop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together35,032 recipes

    Shared aroma: beta-damascenone (apple, rose).

  4. Sugar + chocolatetop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together15,404 recipes

    Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).

  5. Egg + breadtop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together22,662 recipes

    Shared aroma: (e)-2-octenal (fatty, green).

Sugar and vanilla barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 35,032 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 lift and structure the batter, while yolks add richness and help it set.
Butter
Adds fat and richness, giving a tender texture and smooth mouthfeel.
Chocolate
Provides the main flavour and, as it cools, firms the set custard.
Bread crumbs
Soaked and squeezed, they add body and absorb moisture, giving the souffle a lighter crumb.
Castor sugar
Sweetens the mixture and helps stabilise the whipped egg whites.

The step that matters

Fold in the whipped egg whites. Whites hold air only if whipped properly and folded gently. Overmixing knocks out the air, so the souffle rises less and turns 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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