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Dessert

Cheese Souffle

A light, baked cheese soufflé made with butter, flour, milk, cheese, eggs, and salt.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 6 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

Oven, in the book's wordsA slow oven

Ingredients

Directions

The book says “a slow oven”. The 300°F (150°C) in the steps is the modern equivalent, not the book's own figure.

Make the base

  1. Melt the butter in a saucepan.

  2. Add the flour and mix well.

  3. Gradually add the scalded milk while stirring.

  4. Stir in the salt and cheese, then remove from heat.

Finish and bake

  1. Add the beaten egg yolks and mix well.

  2. Cool the mixture slightly, then fold in the stiffly beaten egg whites.

  3. Pour into a buttered baking dish.

  4. Bake for 20 minutes in a 300°F (150°C) oven.

  5. 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. 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 trapped in the mixture expand in the oven and give the soufflé its lift and airy structure.
Butter
Fat that enriches the base and helps form the smooth roux with the flour.
Flour
Thickens the butter and milk into a roux that holds the soufflé base together.
American cheese
Adds rich flavour and fat to the base, and helps it set as it cooks.
Scalded milk
Liquid that, with the roux, forms a thick sauce base that carries the eggs.

The step that matters

Fold in the egg whites. Beaten whites hold the air that makes the soufflé rise. Folding gently keeps that air in; stirring or deflating them leaves a dense result. Cooling the base slightly first stops it from melting 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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