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Souffle of Dried Haddock

A baked souffle made with dried haddock, egg whites, and brown crumbs.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
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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 ↓

Souffle of Dried Haddock

Oven, in the book's wordsA moderate oven

Ingredients

Directions

The book says “a moderate oven”. The 350°F (175°C) in the steps is the modern equivalent, not the book's own figure.

Prepare

  1. Preheat the oven to 350°F (175°C).

Make the base

  1. Melt the butter in a saucepan, stir in the flour, and add the milk; boil the mixture well.

  2. Stir in the egg yolks and chopped haddock, and season to taste.

Fold and bake

  1. Gently fold in the beaten egg whites until well combined.

  2. Grease small ramekins and fill them with the mixture.

  3. Top with a few brown crumbs and bake for about 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. Milk + buttertop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together81,283 recipes

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

  2. Butter + flourtop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together124,287 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  3. Oyster + buttertop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together8,184 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2,6-nonadienal (cucumber, green).

  4. Oyster + eggtop 14% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together4,103 recipes

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

  5. Milk + flourtop 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

Egg whites
Whipped to foam, they trap air and lift the mixture so the souffle rises and stays light.
Egg yolks
Add richness and help bind the base, giving the souffle a smooth, set texture.
Flour
Thickens the butter and milk into a base that holds the whipped egg whites in place.
Dried haddock
Supplies the main savoury flavour and firm, flaky body to the souffle base.
Butter
Adds fat and richness to the base and helps carry flavour.

The step that matters

Folding in the egg whites. Whites hold air only while whipped, so folding gently keeps bubbles intact. Stirring or overmixing deflates them and the souffle rises poorly.

“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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