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Potato Souffle

A baked potato dish with a light, airy filling made from mashed potatoes, milk, butter, eggs, salt, and pepper.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 7 ingredients
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Why it works: Milk and butter 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 ↓

Potato Souffle

Ingredients

Directions

The book gives no oven temperature. The 400°F (200°C) in the steps was added when the recipe was transcribed, as a starting point.

Prepare the potatoes

  1. Wash and bake the potatoes thoroughly.

  2. Chop off the tops and scoop out the insides into a sieve, preserving the skins.

Make the filling

  1. In a saucepan, heat the milk and butter until the milk boils.

  2. Add the scooped potatoes to the boiling milk and beat well until smooth.

  3. Stir in the egg yolks, salt, and pepper.

  4. Gently fold in the beaten egg whites.

Bake and serve

  1. Fill the potato skins with the mixture and bake in a 400°F (200°C) oven for 10 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. Milk + buttertop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together81,283 recipes

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

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

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

  3. Potato + milktop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together3,611 recipes

    Shared aroma: (e,z)-2,6-nonadienal (cucumber, melon).

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

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

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

    Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).

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

What each ingredient does

Potatoes
Provide the starchy base that gives the souffle its light, fluffy body and soft texture.
Egg whites
Whipped and folded in, they trap air that lifts and sets the souffle as it bakes.
Egg yolks
Add richness and help bind the mixture, giving it a smooth, custard-like texture.
Milk
Adds moisture and softness, loosening the potato into a smooth, spoonable mixture.
Butter
Adds fat for richer flavor and a tender, silky mouthfeel.

The step that matters

Folding in the egg whites. Egg whites hold air that makes the souffle rise. Folding gently keeps that air in; stirring or beating them down makes the souffle dense and flat.

Swap the potato

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

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

Fit is the average pairing score against milk, 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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