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Ham Souffle

A baked ham soufflé made with butter, onion, flour, milk, bread crumbs, ham, eggs, and pepper.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 8 ingredients
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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 ↓

Ham 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.

Make the base

  1. Melt butter in a pan and cook onion without browning.

  2. Add flour and pepper, then gradually stir in milk.

  3. Let mixture boil for two minutes, then strain it over bread crumbs and chopped ham.

  4. Mix thoroughly, then stir in beaten yolks of eggs.

Bake and serve

  1. Fold in beaten egg whites gently.

  2. Pour mixture into buttered baking dish and place it in a pan of hot water.

  3. Bake at 400°F (200°C) for about twenty-five 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 + breadtop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together27,232 recipes

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

  2. Butter + milktop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together81,283 recipes

    Shared aroma: (z)-4-heptenal (biscuit, cream).

  3. Bread + hamtop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together2,536 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-acetyl-1-pyrroline (popcorn, roasted).

  4. Milk + breadtop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together11,466 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-undecenal (sweet).

  5. Onion + peppertop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together68,474 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

Eggs
Whites trapped by folding give the soufflé its airy lift, and yolks enrich the custard.
Flour
Thickens the butter and milk into a sauce that holds the bread crumbs and ham together.
Milk
Forms the liquid base of the sauce, adding moisture and a soft, creamy texture.
Bread crumbs
Absorb the sauce and add body, giving the soufflé its structure and soft texture.
Ham
Provides the main savory flavor and firmer bite within the soft mixture.
Butter
Adds richness and flavor to the base and greases the dish so it does not stick.

The step that matters

Fold in the egg whites gently. Egg whites hold air only while whole. Stirring or deflating them vigorously knocks out the bubbles, so the soufflé rises less and turns dense.

Swap the onion

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

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

Fit is the average pairing score against butter, flour, pepper, milk, bread, ham, 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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