Skip to main content
Main

Cheese Souffle

A light, baked cheese dish made with a roux, milk, eggs, and grated cheese.

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

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 350°F (175°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, then stir in the flour until smooth.

  2. Add the milk, salt, and cayenne or paprika; cook for 2-3 minutes.

  3. Remove from heat and mix in the beaten egg yolks and grated cheese.

  4. Let the mixture cool.

Fold and bake

  1. Once cool, gently fold in the beaten egg whites.

  2. Pour into a buttered baking dish or individual dishes.

  3. Place in a pan of hot water and bake at 350°F (175°C) for 35 minutes, or 15-20 minutes for individual dishes.

  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 + 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. Milk + cheesetop 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 (yolks)
Enrich the base and add richness and colour to the custard.
Egg whites
Whipped to a stiff froth, they trap air and make the souffle rise.
Flour
Thickens the butter and milk into a smooth white sauce that holds the souffle.
Butter
Fat that enriches the flour roux and adds flavour to the base.
Milk
Liquid that cooks with the flour into a thick sauce base.
Cheese
Adds savoury flavour and body to the base.

The step that matters

Fold in the egg whites gently. Whites hold air only while whipped; vigorous stirring deflates the foam, so the souffle will not rise well. Fold gently, after the base has cooled, so the batter stays light.

“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.

You might also like

Macaroni and CheeseMacaroni and Cheese102 recipesCheese MakingCheese Making50 recipesCheese FrittersCheese Fritters34 recipesCheese OmeletteCheese Omelette31 recipes