Why it works: Pepper and lemon match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 3% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 27,047 recipes. Both carry trans-2-nonenal, which smells cardboard, fatty. The science ↓
Fish Souffle
Ingredients
Directions
Prepare the base
Wipe the fish and chop it finely.
Melt the butter in a saucepan, add the flour and fish stock or milk, and cook until the sauce thickens.
Pound the fish, sauce, and eggs in a mortar, then rub through a fine sieve.
Shape and steam
Season well, add the cream, and pour the mixture into a buttered souffle tin.
Cover with buttered paper and steam gently for about 45 minutes.
Serve
When firm, turn the souffle onto a hot dish and coat it with fish sauce.
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.
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Pepper + lemontop 3% of all pairsSmell alikestrongCooked together27,047 recipes
Shared aroma: trans-2-nonenal (cardboard, fatty).
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Butter + creamtop 8% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together41,516 recipes
Shared aroma: delta-dodecalactone (sweet, creamy).
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Fish + buttertop 12% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together4,488 recipes
Shared aroma: (z)-4-heptenal (biscuit, cream).
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Flour + buttertop 12% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together124,287 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
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Fish + lemontop 15% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together1,889 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).
Flour and butter 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 of the soufflé and gives it its flavour.
- Eggs
- Set when heated, giving the soufflé structure and lightness.
- Flour
- Thickens the sauce base so it holds the pounded fish and eggs.
- Cream
- Adds richness and moisture to the finished mixture.
- Butter
- Adds fat and flavour to the sauce base.
The step that matters
Steaming gently. Eggs set when heated, and high heat or boiling water can make the soufflé rubbery or cause it to rise unevenly. Gentle steam sets the mixture evenly and keeps it tender.
“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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