Name: Cheese Souffle
Ingredients: 1 cup milk; ¼ pound cheese, crumbled; a little salt; 2 eggs

Why it works: Milk and cheese are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 10% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 4,426 recipes. Both carry delta-dodecalactone, which smells sweet, creamy. The science ↓

Cheese Souffle

Ingredients

1 cup milk
¼ pound cheese, crumbled
a little salt
2 eggs

Directions

Heat the milk in a saucepan until warm.
Add the crumbled cheese and stir until it dissolves and thickens.
Season with a little salt.
Beat the egg yolks separately and mix with a little cold milk to prevent curdling.
Pour the hot milk and cheese mixture over the yolks and keep warm.
Just before serving, gently fold in the beaten egg whites.

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.

Milk + cheesetop 10% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together4,426 recipes

Shared aroma: delta-dodecalactone (sweet, creamy).
Milk + eggtop 18% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together88,785 recipes

Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).
Cheese + eggtop 28% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together6,253 recipes

Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).