Why it works: Cream and butter are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 8% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 41,516 recipes. Both carry delta-dodecalactone, 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).
Grate the cheese and set aside.
Make the base
In a bowl, mix the yolks of three eggs with 1 cup of cream and ¼ teaspoon of salt.
Beat the egg whites until stiff peaks form.
In another bowl, mix 2 ounces of potato flour with ½ pint of boiled cream, 1 teaspoon of sugar, and 1 tablespoon of butter.
Add four beaten egg yolks to the potato flour mixture.
Beat the remaining two egg whites until frothy.
Fold and bake
Combine the beaten egg whites with the cheese mixture just before baking.
Gently fold the frothy egg whites into the mixture.
Pour the mixture into a soufflé dish.
Bake for 20 minutes.
Dust with a little sugar before serving.
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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Cream + buttertop 8% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together41,516 recipes
Shared aroma: delta-dodecalactone (sweet, creamy).
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Cheese + buttertop 8% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together7,962 recipes
Shared aroma: delta-dodecalactone (sweet, creamy).
-
Cream + sugartop 9% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together43,450 recipes
Shared aroma: 2,3-butanedione (butter, sweet).
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Flour + buttertop 12% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together124,287 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
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Potato + buttertop 13% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together6,456 recipes
Shared aroma: (z)-4-heptenal (biscuit, cream).
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
- Whipped whites trap air, lifting the soufflé as it bakes and sets.
- Cheese
- Adds rich flavor and fat, and its proteins help set the structure as it heats.
- Potato flour
- Thickens the base so it holds the whipped air and gives the soufflé body.
- Cream
- Adds moisture and richness, keeping the base smooth and tender.
- Butter
- Adds fat for richness and a softer, more tender crumb.
The step that matters
Folding the frothy egg whites. Folding gently keeps the air trapped in the whites. Stirring or deflating the mixture makes the soufflé rise less and turn dense.
Swap the potato
How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (cheese, egg, cream, flour, sugar, butter):
- Chivefits about as well
- Asparagusfits about as well
- Mustardfits about as well
- Potatothe original
Fit is the average pairing score against cheese, egg, cream, flour, sugar, butter. 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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