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Dessert

Pouding Souffle a LA Parmentier

A French potato soufflé made with baked potatoes, sugar, butter, cream, lemon rind, and egg yolks and whites.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 7 ingredients
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Why it works: Butter and cream are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 8% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 41,516 recipes. Both carry delta-dodecalactone, which smells sweet, creamy. The science ↓

Pouding Souffle a LA Parmentier

Oven, in the book's wordsA moderate oven

Ingredients

Directions

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

Prepare the potatoes

  1. Wash the potatoes and bake them in their skins until tender.

  2. Pass the baked potatoes through a sieve to make a puree.

Make the soufflé mixture

  1. Mix the puree with sugar, butter, boiling cream, and lemon rind until smooth.

  2. Add the egg yolks and stir well.

  3. Gently fold in the whisked egg whites.

Bake and serve

  1. Butter and flour a soufflé tin, then fasten a well-oiled paper band around the top.

  2. Bake in a preheated oven at 400 °F (200 °C) for 20 to 30 minutes.

  3. Turn out onto a hot dish 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 + creamtop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together41,516 recipes

    Shared aroma: delta-dodecalactone (sweet, creamy).

  2. Sugar + creamtop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together43,450 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2,3-butanedione (butter, sweet).

  3. Potato + lemontop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together2,230 recipes

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

  4. Potato + buttertop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together6,456 recipes

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

  5. Butter + lemontop 16% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together41,227 recipes

    Shared aroma: 3-hexenal (apple, fruity).

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

What each ingredient does

Potatoes
Provide the bulk of the soufflé, giving a light, thick base once sieved to a smooth puree.
Egg whites
Whipped to a stiff froth, they trap air that lifts and sets the soufflé as it bakes.
Egg yolks
Enrich the base and add richness and body to the mixture.
Butter
Adds fat for a soft, rich texture and smooth flavour.
Cream
Adds moisture and richness, keeping the puree smooth and tender.
Sugar
Adds sweetness and helps the soufflé brown lightly as it bakes.

The step that matters

Folding in the egg whites. Whites hold air only while stiff. Folding gently keeps that air in the mixture, so the soufflé rises well; stirring hard deflates it and it bakes flat and dense.

Swap the potato

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (sugar, butter, cream, lemon, egg):

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

Fit is the average pairing score against sugar, butter, cream, lemon, 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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