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Souffl& of Cream of Parmesan

A baked soufflé made with butter, flour, milk, Parmesan cheese, and eggs.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 9 ingredients
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Why it works: Potato and corn match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 5% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 938 recipes. Both carry (e)-2-octenal, which smells fatty, green. The science ↓

Souffl& of Cream of 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. In a saucepan, warm the butter over low heat.

  2. Add salt and cayenne pepper to taste.

  3. Stir in the potato flour and corn flour until smooth.

  4. Gradually add the milk, stirring until it boils.

  5. Remove from heat and mix in the grated Parmesan cheese and egg yolks one at a time.

Fold and bake

  1. Beat the egg whites until stiff peaks form, then gently fold into the mixture.

  2. Butter a soufflé dish and pour the mixture into it.

  3. Bake 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. Potato + corntop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together938 recipes

    Shared aroma: (e)-2-octenal (fatty, green).

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

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

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

    Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).

  4. Pepper + potatotop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together8,305 recipes

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

  5. Potato + milktop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together3,611 recipes

    Shared aroma: (e,z)-2,6-nonadienal (cucumber, melon).

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

What each ingredient does

Egg whites
Whipped to stiff peaks, they trap air and make the soufflé rise and stay light.
Egg yolks
Enrich the base and add richness while helping it set when baked.
Parmesan cheese
Adds savory flavor and salty depth to the base.
Potato flour and corn flour
Thicken the milk base so it holds the whipped egg whites without collapsing.
Milk
Forms the liquid base that the flour thickens into a smooth sauce.
Butter
Adds fat and richness and helps form the smooth starting roux.

The step that matters

Folding the egg whites. Whites must be beaten to stiff peaks and folded in gently. Stirring or deflating them removes the trapped air, so the soufflé rises less and turns dense.

Swap the potato

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

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

Fit is the average pairing score against butter, pepper, flour, corn, milk, parmesan cheese, 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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