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Dessert

Chocolate Souffle

A baked chocolate dessert made with chocolate, flour, sugar, butter, milk, eggs, and vanilla, steamed in a mold.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 9 ingredients
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Why it works: Milk and vanilla are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 5% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 19,187 recipes. Both carry ethyl caproate, which smells fruity, apple peel. The science ↓

Chocolate Souffle

Ingredients

Directions

Make the base

  1. In a small saucepan, simmer the milk and chocolate gently until dissolved.

  2. Melt the butter and stir in the flour.

  3. Add the chocolate mixture and boil well.

  4. Let the mixture cool slightly.

  5. Add the vanilla, then the sugar.

  6. Add the egg yolks one at a time, beating well.

Bake and serve

  1. Whisk the egg whites.

  2. Gently fold the whisked egg whites into the mixture.

  3. Pour the batter into a well-buttered mold.

  4. Steam gently for 45 to 50 minutes.

  5. Serve with the sauce around the dish.

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 + vanillatop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together19,187 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl caproate (fruity, apple peel).

  2. Chocolate + vanillatop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together10,020 recipes

    Shared aroma: sotolon (curry, maple).

  3. Butter + milktop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together81,283 recipes

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

  4. Sugar + vanillatop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together35,032 recipes

    Shared aroma: beta-damascenone (apple, rose).

  5. Flour + buttertop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together124,287 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

Sugar and vanilla barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 35,032 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 whites
Whisked and folded in, they trap air and give the soufflé its light, risen structure.
Egg yolks
Add richness and emulsify the base, helping it set smoothly into a tender texture.
Flour
Thickens the butter and milk base so it can hold the air from the whites.
Chocolate
Provides the main flavour and, melted into the milk, gives the base its body.
Milk
Forms the liquid base that the chocolate dissolves into and the flour thickens.
Sugar
Adds sweetness and contributes to the soft, tender crumb of the soufflé.

The step that matters

Folding the egg whites. Folding gently keeps the air trapped in the whisked whites. Stirring or deflating the mixture makes the soufflé heavy and less able to rise during steaming.

“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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