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Veal Souffle

A steamed veal soufflé flavored with butter, eggs, cream, and truffles.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 8 ingredients
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Why it works: Pepper and nutmeg match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 7% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 13,015 recipes. Both carry 4'-methylacetophenone, which smells bitter almond. The science ↓

Veal Souffle

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the veal

  1. Remove skin and gristle from the veal.

  2. Cut the veal into small pieces.

  3. Pound the veal in a mortar until smooth.

Make the mixture

  1. Gradually add butter, the yolks of 3 eggs, and the white of 1 egg, along with the cold supreme sauce.

  2. Season with salt, pepper, and nutmeg.

  3. Whisk the remaining 2 egg whites until stiff.

  4. Gently fold in the whipped cream.

Fill and steam

  1. Decorate the bottom of a well-buttered timbale or charlotte mold with sliced truffles.

  2. Sprinkle the bottom with chopped truffle.

  3. Fill the mold three-quarters full with the mixture.

  4. Steam gently for about 1 hour.

  5. Unmold the soufflé.

  6. Serve with supreme or another good white sauce.

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. Pepper + nutmegtop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together13,015 recipes

    Shared aroma: 4'-methylacetophenone (bitter almond).

  2. Butter + creamtop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together41,516 recipes

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

  3. Sauce + creamtop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together4,787 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).

  4. Butter + truffletop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together2,209 recipes

    Shared aroma: nonanal (fat, citrus).

  5. Nutmeg + creamtop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together7,920 recipes

    Shared aroma: acetic acid (sour, vinegar).

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

What each ingredient does

Eggs
Yolks and whites give the soufflé its set structure and light, airy lift.
Veal (in the method)
Forms the main body of the soufflé, giving it a smooth, delicate texture when pounded.
Cream
Whipped and folded in, it adds lightness and moisture to the mixture.
Butter
Adds richness and a smooth, silky mouthfeel to the mixture.
Supreme sauce
Adds moisture and body, keeping the mixture tender when cooked.

The step that matters

Folding in the whipped cream and egg whites. Folding gently keeps the air trapped in the whites and whipped cream. Overmixing deflates the foam, so the soufflé will be dense rather than light when steamed.

Swap the nutmeg

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

  1. Nutmegthe original
  2. Tarragonfits about as well
  3. Parsleyfits about as well
  4. Capersfits less well

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