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Dessert

Cheese Soufflés

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

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 8 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 ↓

Cheese Soufflés

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. The book gives no cooking times either; the times in the steps were added in transcription, so check for doneness rather than trusting the clock.

Prepare the base

  1. Preheat the oven to 350°F (175°C).

  2. In a saucepan, heat the milk until warm.

  3. In another pan, melt the butter, then stir in the flour, salt, black pepper, and cayenne pepper.

  4. Gradually add the warm milk, stirring until thickened.

  5. Remove from heat and mix in the egg yolks and cheese.

Whip and bake

  1. In a separate bowl, beat the egg whites until stiff peaks form.

  2. Fold the egg whites into the cheese mixture gently.

  3. Pour the mixture into a greased baking dish.

  4. Bake for 25-30 minutes until puffed and golden.

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 + 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. Milk + flourtop 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
Whipped whites trap air for lift, while yolks enrich the base and help set the structure.
Butter
Fat that combines with flour to form a roux, giving the base body and a rich flavor.
All-purpose flour
Starch that thickens the milk into a stable sauce base that holds the whipped whites.
Milk
Liquid that, thickened with the roux, forms the creamy body of the soufflé.
Cheese
Adds savory flavor and fat, enriching the base so it tastes of cheese.

The step that matters

Fold the egg whites gently. Whipped whites hold the air that makes the soufflé rise. Vigorous stirring deflates the foam, so the soufflé bakes flat and dense instead of light and puffed.

“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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