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Sardine Souffles

A baked dish of sardines folded into a beaten egg and flour custard.

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 ↓

Sardine Souffles

Oven, in the book's wordsA rather hot oven

Ingredients

Directions

The book says “a rather 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, then add the flour and stir well.

  2. Pour in the milk and stir until boiling.

  3. Boil until very thick.

  4. Cool the mixture.

Add the filling

  1. Add the boned and chopped sardines.

  2. Add the yolk of the egg.

  3. Season the mixture.

Bake and serve

  1. Beat the egg whites until very stiff.

  2. Gently fold in the egg whites.

  3. Bake immediately in small greased ramekin cases for about 10 minutes at 400°F (200°C).

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

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

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

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  3. Egg + anchovytop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together2,330 recipes

    Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).

  4. Butter + anchovytop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together3,697 recipes

    Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).

  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

Flour
Thickens the melted butter and milk into a stable white sauce base.
Milk
Forms the liquid base of the sauce that carries the other ingredients.
Egg whites
Whipped to hold air, giving the soufflé its light, risen structure.
Egg yolk
Enriches the thickened base and adds richness and set structure.
Sardines
Provide the main fish flavour and savoury body of the soufflé.

The step that matters

Gently fold in the egg whites. Stiffly beaten whites trap air that makes the soufflé rise. Folding gently keeps that air in; stirring or deflating the mixture leaves a dense result. Bake immediately, since the risen structure begins to collapse as it cools.

“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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