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 ↓
Codfish Souffle
Ingredients
Directions
The book gives no oven temperature. The 350°F (175°C) in the steps was added when the recipe was transcribed, as a starting point.
Make the base
Boil the rice in milk until soft.
While hot, beat in the codfish, melted butter, egg yolks, and pepper.
Let the mixture cool.
Bake and serve
Fold in the beaten egg whites.
Bake at 350°F (175°C) for 30 minutes.
Serve with butter sauce.
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.
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Milk + buttertop 7% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together81,283 recipes
Shared aroma: (z)-4-heptenal (biscuit, cream).
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Rice + milktop 7% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together7,374 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).
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Rice + peppertop 12% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together8,379 recipes
Shared aroma: trans-2-nonenal (cardboard, fatty).
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Rice + buttertop 16% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together9,645 recipes
Shared aroma: trans-2-nonenal (cardboard, fatty).
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Butter + eggtop 17% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked 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
- Egg whites
- Beaten whites trap air, giving the soufflé its light, risen structure.
- Egg yolks
- Add richness and help bind the mixture while setting in the oven.
- Rice
- Softened in milk, it thickens the base and gives the soufflé body.
- Milk
- Cooks with the rice to form a creamy base that carries the other ingredients.
- Codfish
- Provides the main savory flavor and substance of the soufflé.
The step that matters
Folding in the beaten egg whites. Folding gently keeps the air in the beaten whites. Stirring or deflating the mixture too much makes the soufflé dense instead of light and risen.
“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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