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Celery Souffles

A light, airy dish made from celery puree, eggs, butter, and Parmesan cheese.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 11 ingredients
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Why it works: Celery and pepper match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 5% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 16,012 recipes. Both carry 4'-methylacetophenone, which smells bitter almond. The science ↓

Celery Souffles

Oven, in the book's wordsA hot oven

Ingredients

Directions

The book says “a hot oven”. The 400°F in the steps is the modern equivalent, not the book's own figure.

Prepare the celery

  1. Soak the trimmed celery in salted water for a little while.

  2. Combine milk, celery, bay leaf, mace, and onion in a saucepan.

  3. Boil until tender.

  4. Remove the bay leaf and mace.

  5. Strain the mixture through a fine sieve.

Make the base

  1. Combine ½ cup water, butter, and coarse sea salt in a stewpan and bring to a boil.

  2. Stir in the flour.

  3. Cook vigorously with a wooden spoon for several minutes.

  4. Add the celery puree to the mixture.

  5. Let it cool slightly.

  6. Stir in the cheese.

  7. Gradually mix in the yolks of two eggs and one whole egg.

Bake and serve

  1. Whisk the whites of two eggs to stiff peaks.

  2. Gently fold the whites into the mixture.

  3. Season with cayenne.

  4. Fill souffle cases three-quarters full.

  5. Bake in a hot oven (400°F / 200°C) for about 10 minutes.

  6. Arrange the cases on a dish and garnish.

  7. 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. Celery + peppertop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together16,012 recipes

    Shared aroma: 4'-methylacetophenone (bitter almond).

  2. Celery + oniontop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together18,518 recipes

    Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).

  3. Butter + parmesan cheesetop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together4,163 recipes

    Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).

  4. Onion + peppertop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together68,474 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).

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

Celery
Provides the main flavour and, as a puree, the moisture and body of the base.
Eggs
Yolks enrich and set the base, while whipped whites trap air so the soufflé rises.
Flour
Thickens the butter and liquid into a paste that holds the soufflé base together.
Butter
Adds fat for richness and a smooth texture in the flour paste.
Parmesan cheese
Adds savoury, salty flavour to the soufflé base.
Milk
Adds moisture and creaminess to the celery puree.

The step that matters

Gently fold the whites into the mixture.. Whisked egg whites hold tiny air bubbles that make the soufflé rise. Stirring or overmixing them deflates the foam, so the soufflé bakes flat and dense.

Swap the mace

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (celery, butter, parmesan cheese, flour, onion, pepper, egg):

  1. Parsleyfits better
  2. Capersfits better
  3. Thymefits better
  4. Macethe original

Fit is the average pairing score against celery, butter, parmesan cheese, flour, onion, pepper, egg. Candidates are from the same food group and used in at least 100 recipes.

“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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