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Dessert

Cheese Souffles

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

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 8 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 ↓

Cheese Souffles

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 in a saucepan.

  2. Mix in the flour, then add the milk and stir until it boils.

  3. Boil quickly for about three minutes, then remove from heat.

  4. Add seasoning and allow to cool slightly.

  5. Beat in the egg yolks.

Fold and bake

  1. Whip the egg whites to a very stiff froth.

  2. Gently stir in the cheese and whipped egg whites.

  3. Half fill small buttered ramekin cases with the mixture.

  4. Bake in a hot oven at 400°F (200°C) for about ten minutes.

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 + cheesetop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together7,962 recipes

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

  3. Milk + cheesetop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together4,426 recipes

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

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

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  5. Flour + milktop 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

Egg whites
Whipped into a stiff froth, they trap air and make the soufflé rise and turn light.
Egg yolks
Beaten into the base, they enrich the mixture and help it set as it bakes.
Flour
Cooked with the butter and milk, it thickens the sauce that holds the soufflé together.
Butter
Melted with the flour, it forms the roux that gives the base body and richness.
Grated cheese
Adds rich savoury flavour and fat, and helps give the soufflé its structure.

The step that matters

Whipping the egg whites to a very stiff froth. Stiff whites hold air bubbles that lift the mixture in the oven. Underwhipped whites collapse, and overwhipped whites turn grainy and deflate, so the soufflé falls flat.

“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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