Skip to main content
Main

Savoury Souffle

A baked cheese and egg soufflé served in a French roll.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
Jump to recipe ↓

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 ↓

Savoury Souffle

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

  1. Preheat the oven to 400°F (200°C).

Make the soufflé

  1. Beat the cheese with the butter and the yolks of the eggs until smooth.

  2. Soak the inside of the roll in the milk and beat it into the cheese mixture.

  3. Whip the egg whites to a stiff froth and gently fold them into the mixture.

  4. Butter a souffle tin and pour in the mixture.

Bake

  1. Bake for 15 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. Cheese + buttertop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together7,962 recipes

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

  3. Cheese + milktop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together4,426 recipes

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

  4. Egg + buttertop 17% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together118,967 recipes

    Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).

  5. Egg + milktop 18% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together88,785 recipes

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

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

What each ingredient does

Eggs
Whites trapped as a stiff froth lift the mixture and give the soufflé its rise and airy texture.
Cheese
Adds richness and flavour, and its fat and protein help set the baked structure.
Butter
Adds fat and richness, smoothing the cheese base and carrying flavour.
French roll
Soaked in milk, its soft crumb thickens the base and adds moisture and body.
Milk
Softens the roll and adds moisture, loosening the base so it blends smoothly.

The step that matters

Folding in the egg whites. Whites beaten to a stiff froth hold the air that makes a soufflé rise. Folding gently keeps that air in; stirring hard deflates the mixture and the soufflé will fall 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.

You might also like