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Fish Souffle

A baked or steamed fish dish folded with beaten egg whites and a butter‑flour‑milk sauce.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 5 ingredients
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Why it works: Milk and butter 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 ↓

Fish Souffle

Oven, in the book's wordsA hot oven

Ingredients

Directions

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

Make the base

  1. Melt the butter, then whisk in the flour and milk until smooth.

  2. Add the egg yolks and seasonings to the sauce, then fold in the fish.

Fold and cook

  1. Beat the egg whites until stiff, then gently fold them into the fish mixture.

  2. Pour the mixture into a buttered baking dish and steam for 30 minutes.

  3. Alternatively, bake for 30 minutes at 400°F (200°C) after adding an extra egg white.

Serve

  1. Top with a little whipped cream before serving.

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 + buttertop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together81,283 recipes

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

  2. Fish + buttertop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together4,488 recipes

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

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

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  4. Fish + milktop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,432 recipes

    Shared aroma: 4-heptenal (creamy, biscuit).

  5. Milk + flourtop 14% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together78,219 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

Fish
Forms the main body and flavour of the soufflé.
Milk
Provides the liquid that becomes the smooth sauce base.
Butter
Adds fat for richness and helps form the initial roux.
Flour
Thickens the milk into a sauce that holds the fish and air.
Eggs
Yolks enrich the base, while whipped whites trap air and lift the soufflé.

The step that matters

Fold the beaten egg whites gently into the fish mixture. Whites whipped to stiff peaks hold tiny air bubbles that expand in the heat and make the soufflé rise. Vigorous stirring deflates these bubbles, so the soufflé falls and turns dense.

“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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