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Cheese Soufflees

A baked dish of cheese and eggs, folded with whipped egg whites.

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 Soufflees

Oven, in the book's wordsA quick oven

Ingredients

Directions

The book says “a quick 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 pan.

  2. Add the flour and gradually stir in the milk until boiling; then let it cool.

  3. Add the cheese and seasonings, then mix in the egg yolks.

Prepare and fold

  1. Whip the egg whites until stiff and fold them into the mixture gradually.

  2. Prepare a well-buttered souffle tin with a band of greased paper tied around it.

Bake and serve

  1. Pour the mixture into the tin and bake in a 400°F (200°C) oven for 20 to 30 minutes.

  2. Remove the paper quickly and wrap a serviette around the tin; 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 + cheesetop 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. 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

Eggs
Yolks enrich the base and whites, whipped stiff, trap air that lifts the soufflé as it bakes.
Butter
Adds richness and flavour to the base and helps the tin release cleanly.
Flour
Thickens the milk into a stable white sauce that holds the air and cheese together.
Milk
Forms the liquid base that the flour thickens into a smooth sauce.
Dry grated cheese
Provides the main flavour and fat, and adds body to the base.

The step that matters

Fold in the egg whites gently. Whipped whites hold the air that makes the soufflé rise. Stirring or deflating them vigorously knocks out the air, so the soufflé bakes flat and dense.

“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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