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Bread

Cornmeal Souffle Bread

A baked cornmeal soufflé bread made with milk, butter, eggs, and salt.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 6 ingredients
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Why it works: Milk and butter are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 7% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 81,283 recipes. Both carry (z)-4-heptenal, which smells biscuit, cream. The science ↓

Cornmeal Souffle Bread

Oven, in the book's wordsA fairly quick oven

Ingredients

Directions

The book says “a fairly quick oven”. The 400°F (200°C) in the steps is the modern equivalent, not the book's own figure.

Make the base

  1. Heat the milk in a double boiler until it reaches the scalding point.

  2. Gradually add the cornmeal and salt, cooking over hot water until the mixture is free from a raw taste.

  3. Remove from heat and let it cool slightly.

  4. Stir in the butter and the egg yolks, one at a time, beating well after each addition.

Bake and serve

  1. Beat the egg whites until stiff and fold them into the mixture carefully.

  2. Pour the soufflé into a buttered baking dish.

  3. Place the dish in a pan of hot water.

  4. Bake at 400°F (200°C) for 30 minutes.

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. Milk + buttertop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together81,283 recipes

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

  2. Butter + eggtop 17% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together118,967 recipes

    Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).

  3. Milk + eggtop 18% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together88,785 recipes

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

Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs

What each ingredient does

Egg whites
Whipped to stiff peaks, they trap air and make the bread light and airy when baked.
Egg yolks
Add richness and emulsify the batter, helping it set into a tender crumb.
Cornmeal
Forms the bulk of the mixture and gives the bread its grainy texture and flavor.
Milk
Hydrates the cornmeal as it cooks, forming the base that carries the other ingredients.
Butter
Adds fat for a softer texture and richer flavor.

The step that matters

Folding in the egg whites. Whipped whites hold the air that lifts the soufflé. Folding gently keeps that air in; stirring or deflating the whites makes the bread dense and flat.

“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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