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Souffle Potatoes, American Style

A baked potato dish with a fluffy soufflé-like filling made from mashed potatoes, butter, eggs, and seasonings.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 6 ingredients
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Why it works: Potato and pepper are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 9% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 8,305 recipes. Both carry 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine, which smells earthy, pea. The science ↓

Souffle Potatoes, American Style

Oven, in the book's wordsA sharp oven

Ingredients

Directions

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

Prepare the potatoes

  1. Wash and scrub the potatoes.

  2. Cut a small piece off one end of each potato.

  3. Bake the potatoes until done.

  4. Cut off the opposite end of each baked potato.

  5. Remove the insides of the baked potatoes.

  6. Press the potato insides through a sieve.

Make the filling

  1. Season the mashed potato with salt and pepper.

  2. Melt the butter in a saucepan.

  3. Add the potato puree to the melted butter.

  4. Heat the mixture.

  5. Mix in the egg yolks thoroughly.

  6. Fold in the whipped egg whites gently.

Bake and serve

  1. Fill the potato skins with the mixture.

  2. Arrange the filled skins on a baking tray.

  3. Bake at 400°F (200°C) for 15 minutes.

  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. Potato + peppertop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together8,305 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).

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

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

  3. Butter + eggtop 17% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together118,967 recipes

    Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).

  4. Butter + peppertop 21% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together85,593 recipes

    Shared aroma: trans-2-nonenal (cardboard, fatty).

  5. Potato + eggtop 29% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together4,978 recipes

    Shared aroma: (e)-2-octenal (fatty, green).

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

What each ingredient does

Potatoes
Provide the bulk and starchy body of the soufflé filling and the shells that hold it.
Butter
Adds richness and fat, carrying flavour and giving the puree a smoother mouthfeel.
Egg yolks
Enrich the mixture and help bind the puree, adding richness and set.
Egg whites
Whipped to foam, they trap air and lift the filling so it puffs in the oven.

The step that matters

Fold in the whipped egg whites gently. Egg white foam holds air that makes the soufflé rise. Stirring or deflating it vigorously knocks out the bubbles, so the filling bakes flat and dense.

Swap the potato

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

  1. Capsicumfits better
  2. Asparagusfits about as well
  3. Chivefits about as well
  4. Potatothe original

Fit is the average pairing score against butter, egg, pepper. 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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