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Cheese Souffle

A baked dish of beaten eggs, cheese, and milk, folded into a light, airy custard.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 7 ingredients
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Why it works: Butter and milk 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 ↓

Cheese 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 the butter in a saucepan.

  2. Add the flour and stir until smooth.

  3. Gradually add the milk, stirring carefully.

  4. Add salt and paprika, and cook for 2 minutes.

Make the souffle

  1. Cool the mixture slightly, then add the beaten egg yolks and cheese.

  2. Once almost cold, fold in the stiffly beaten egg whites gently.

  3. Pour the mixture into a buttered baking dish.

Bake and serve

  1. Place the dish in a pan of hot water and bake at 400°F (200°C) for 20 to 30 minutes.

  2. For individual servings, bake in ramekins for 10 to 20 minutes at 350°F (175°C).

  3. Serve immediately as souffles fall quickly when exposed to cooler air.

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

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

  2. Butter + cheesetop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together7,962 recipes

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

  3. Cheese + milktop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together4,426 recipes

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

  4. Butter + flourtop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together124,287 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  5. Flour + milktop 14% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together78,219 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

Butter and flour 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
Whites trap air for lift, and yolks add richness and help set the custard.
Flour
Thickens the butter and milk into a stable white sauce that holds the air.
Butter
Enriches the base and gives it a rich, smooth flavour.
Milk
Forms the liquid base that the flour thickens into a sauce.
Chopped cheese
Adds rich flavour and fat, and sets slightly as the souffle bakes.

The step that matters

Folding in the egg whites. Whites hold air that gives the souffle its lift. Folding gently keeps that air in; stirring deflates the mixture. Fold in when the base is only almost cold, since heat can collapse the foam.

“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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