Why it works: Clove and pepper match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 5% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 17,451 recipes. Both carry ethyl octanoate, which smells fruity, wine. The science ↓
Tomato 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.
Prepare
Preheat the oven to 400°F (200°C).
Pulp the tomatoes through a sieve.
Rub the garlic around a small saucepan and melt the butter in it, or finely chop the shallots and mix them with the butter.
Make the soufflé base
When the butter is hot, stir in the wheatmeal, then add the tomato pulp and stir until thickened and it pulls away from the sides of the pan.
Remove from heat and stir in the egg yolks one at a time, seasoning with pepper and salt.
Bake
Whip the egg whites until stiff and gently fold them into the mixture.
Pour the mixture into a buttered soufflé pan and bake for 15 minutes.
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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Clove + peppertop 5% of all pairsSmell alikestrongCooked together17,451 recipes
Shared aroma: ethyl octanoate (fruity, wine).
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Tomato + peppertop 7% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together17,923 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).
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Tomato + clovetop 12% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together3,474 recipes
Shared aroma: ethyl caproate (fruity, apple peel).
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Flour + buttertop 12% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together124,287 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
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Flour + clovetop 15% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together12,671 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
Flour and butter 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
- Egg whites trapped by whipping give the soufflé its light, risen structure, while yolks enrich the base.
- Wheatmeal
- Cooked with butter and tomato, it thickens the base so it can hold the whipped egg whites.
- Fresh tomatoes
- Supply the main liquid and tomato flavour of the soufflé base.
- Butter
- Adds richness and flavour and helps form the roux-like base with the flour.
The step that matters
Folding in the egg whites. Whipped whites hold the air that makes the soufflé rise. Folding gently keeps that air in; stirring vigorously deflates the mixture, so it bakes flat and dense.
Swap the tomato
How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (egg, flour, butter, clove, pepper):
- Shallotfits better
- Leekfits better
- Chivefits better
- Tomatothe original
Fit is the average pairing score against egg, flour, butter, clove, pepper. 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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