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Cheese Souffle

A baked cheese soufflé made with a béchamel base, beaten egg whites, and grated cheese.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 7 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 ↓

Cheese Souffle

Oven, in the book's wordsA slow oven

Ingredients

Directions

The book says “a slow oven”. The 300°F (150°C) in the steps is the modern equivalent, not the book's own figure.

Make the base

  1. In a saucepan, melt the butter over medium heat.

  2. Add flour, milk, and salt, stirring until thickened to form a white sauce.

  3. Remove from heat and stir in the grated cheese and the beaten egg yolk.

  4. Allow the mixture to cool.

Bake and serve

  1. Once cooled, gently fold in the stiffly beaten egg white.

  2. Pour the mixture into a buttered baking dish.

  3. Bake in a preheated oven at 300°F (150°C) for 15 to 20 minutes.

  4. 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. Butter + cheesetop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together7,962 recipes

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

  3. Milk + cheesetop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together4,426 recipes

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

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

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  5. Flour + milktop 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
The beaten white whips into foam that lifts the soufflé, while the yolk enriches the base and helps it set.
Flour
Thickens the milk and butter into a white sauce that gives the soufflé its body.
Milk
Forms the liquid base of the white sauce, adding moisture and softness.
Grated cheese
Adds rich flavour and fat, and helps the baked structure set.

The step that matters

Fold in the egg white gently. Stiffly beaten egg white holds air bubbles that make the soufflé rise. Vigorous stirring knocks that air out, so the result bakes flat and dense.

“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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