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Mushroom Souffle

A baked dish of eggs, mushrooms, butter, flour, and milk.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 7 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 ↓

Mushroom Souffle

Oven, in the book's wordsA good oven

Ingredients

Directions

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

Prepare

  1. Preheat the oven to 400°F (200°C).

  2. Make a sauce by melting the butter, then whisking in the flour and milk until smooth.

  3. Peel and chop the mushrooms.

  4. Beat the egg yolks and stir them gently into the cooled sauce.

  5. Add the chopped mushrooms, and season with salt and pepper.

Make the soufflé

  1. In a separate bowl, beat the egg whites until stiff peaks form, then fold them into the mixture.

  2. Pour the mixture into a buttered dish or soufflé tin.

Bake and serve

  1. Bake for about 30 minutes and 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 + mushroomtop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together12,525 recipes

    Shared aroma: trans-2-decenal (waxy, orange).

  3. Mushroom + peppertop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together13,580 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).

  4. Mushroom + milktop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together2,231 recipes

    Shared aroma: 1-hexanal (fruit).

  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

Eggs
Whipped whites trap air for lift, while yolks enrich the base and help set the custard.
Butter
Fat that enriches the sauce and coats the dish, aiding release and browning.
Flour
Thickens the melted butter and milk into a stable sauce that holds the structure.
Milk
Liquid that forms the white sauce base and adds moisture and softness.
Mushrooms
Provide the main earthy flavour and moisture in the soufflé base.

The step that matters

Folding the egg whites. Whites beaten to stiff peaks hold air that makes the soufflé rise. Folding gently keeps that air in; stirring or deflating the whites produces a dense, flat result.

“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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