Skip to main content
Main

Soufflé Au Parmesan

A baked Parmesan soufflé made with butter, water, flour, egg yolks, and grated cheese.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 9 ingredients
Jump to recipe ↓

Why it works: Butter and parmesan cheese are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 9% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 4,163 recipes. Both carry guaiacol, which smells smoky, sweet. The science ↓

Soufflé Au Parmesan

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. Combine butter, water, pepper, salt, and sugar in a small saucepan. Bring to a boil, then remove from heat.

  2. Stir in flour vigorously over low heat until the mixture detaches from the sides of the saucepan.

  3. Transfer the mixture to a bowl and let it cool slightly, stirring with a wooden spoon.

Bake

  1. Once cooled, mix in egg yolks, grated Parmesan, and small pieces of butter.

  2. Pour the mixture into a greased baking dish and bake in a preheated oven at 400°F (200°C) 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. Butter + parmesan cheesetop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together4,163 recipes

    Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).

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

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

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

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

  4. Sugar + flourtop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together92,116 recipes

    Shared aroma: phenylacetaldehyde (hawthorne, honey).

  5. Flour + eggtop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together106,462 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

Egg yolks
Add richness and emulsify the base, helping the soufflé set into a tender structure.
All-purpose flour
Forms a starch-thickened paste that gives the base body and holds the rise.
Parmesan cheese
Adds savory flavor and, as it browns, contributes to the golden crust.
Butter
Adds fat for richness and a tender texture in the base.

The step that matters

Cooling the base before adding the yolks. If the base is still hot, it can scramble the egg yolks and cause uneven mixing. Cooling it slightly keeps the yolks smooth and helps the batter hold its air for an even rise.

“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