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Potato Souffle

A baked potato dish filled with a creamy, egg-based mixture.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 7 ingredients
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Why it works: Butter and cream are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 8% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 41,516 recipes. Both carry delta-dodecalactone, which smells sweet, creamy. The science ↓

Potato Souffle

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.

Prepare the potatoes

  1. Bake the potatoes at 400°F (200°C) until tender.

  2. Cut off the tops and scoop out the insides.

  3. Rub the insides through a wire sieve into a saucepan.

Make the filling

  1. Add butter, cream, salt, and pepper to the saucepan.

  2. Stir in the egg yolks and mix well.

  3. Whisk the egg whites to a froth and fold into the mixture.

Fill and bake

  1. Fill the potato shells with the mixture, hole side up.

  2. Arrange in a baking tin and bake for 30 minutes.

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 + creamtop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together41,516 recipes

    Shared aroma: delta-dodecalactone (sweet, creamy).

  2. Potato + peppertop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together8,305 recipes

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

  3. Potato + buttertop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together6,456 recipes

    Shared aroma: (z)-4-heptenal (biscuit, cream).

  4. Potato + creamtop 17% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together2,481 recipes

    Shared aroma: 1-octen-3-one (mushroom, metallic).

  5. Butter + eggtop 17% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together118,967 recipes

    Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).

Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs

What each ingredient does

Potatoes
Provide the starchy base that becomes light and fluffy when mashed and sieved.
Egg whites
Whipped to a froth, they trap air that lifts the mixture as it bakes.
Egg yolks
Enrich the mixture and help it set, giving a rich, custard-like body.
Butter
Adds fat for richness and a smooth texture in the purée.
Heavy cream
Adds fat and moisture, keeping the filling soft and smooth.

The step that matters

Folding in the egg whites. Whipped whites hold air that makes the souffle rise. Stirring them in vigorously deflates the foam, so fold gently with a spatula to keep the mixture light.

Swap the potato

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (butter, cream, pepper, egg):

  1. Potatothe original
  2. Spinachfits about as well
  3. Asparagusfits about as well
  4. Capsicumfits about as well

Fit is the average pairing score against butter, cream, 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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