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Dessert

Cheese Soufflee

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

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 9 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 Soufflee

Oven, in the book's wordsA quick oven

Ingredients

Directions

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

Make the base

  1. Fry the mignonette pepper in the butter for 2-3 minutes.

  2. Strain the butter into a saucepan, then add the flour, salt, pepper, cayenne, and milk.

  3. Stir over heat until thickened, then let cool slightly.

  4. Add 2 egg yolks one at a time, mixing well after each addition.

  5. Stir in the grated cheese.

Assemble and bake

  1. Whip the egg whites to stiff peaks and gently fold into the cheese mixture.

  2. Pour into a buttered pint soufflé dish lined with buttered paper extending 2 inches above the dish.

  3. Bake in a 400°F (200°C) oven for 20-30 minutes.

Serve

  1. Remove the paper and wrap a clean napkin around the dish; 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 + parmesan cheesetop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together4,163 recipes

    Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).

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

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  4. Pepper + parmesan cheesetop 14% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together5,322 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl 2-methylbutyrate (fruity, apple).

  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
Whipped whites trap air for the rise, and yolks enrich the structure of the custard.
Flour
Thickens the butter and milk into a sauce that holds the soufflé together.
Parmesan cheese
Adds savory flavor and fat, and its proteins help set the baked structure.
Butter
Carries the pepper flavor and adds richness to the base sauce.
Milk
Forms the liquid base that the flour thickens into a smooth sauce.

The step that matters

Folding in the egg whites. Whites must be whipped to stiff peaks and folded gently. Overmixing knocks out the trapped air, so the soufflé rises less and falls more.

“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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