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Baked Potato Souffles

A baked potato topped with a fluffy potato and egg mixture.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 6 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 ↓

Baked Potato Souffles

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.

Prepare the potatoes

  1. Scrub the potatoes well and bake them until cooked.

  2. Cut a slice off the top of each potato and scoop out the insides.

  3. Pass the potato through a sieve and measure out 3 ounces.

Make the souffle mixture

  1. In a saucepan, bring the milk and butter to a boil.

  2. Add the 3 ounces of potato, along with pepper and salt to taste.

  3. Off the heat, beat in the yolks of 3 eggs and fold in the beaten egg whites gently.

Bake and serve

  1. Partly fill the potato skins with the mixture.

  2. Bake in a preheated oven at 400°F (200°C) until souffles are puffed and golden brown.

  3. 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. 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 and body that holds the souffle mixture together.
Eggs
Yolks enrich the base while whipped whites give the souffle its lift and airy structure.
Milk
Forms the liquid base that is thickened by the potato and gives a soft, creamy texture.
Butter
Adds richness and fat that softens texture and carries flavour in the base.

The step that matters

Folding in the egg whites. Whites hold air only when whipped to stable peaks and folded in gently; overmixing knocks out the air, so the souffle will not rise well in the oven.

Swap the potato

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (butter, milk, 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 butter, milk, 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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