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Lamb Souffle

A baked lamb soufflé made with butter, onion, green pepper, flour, paprika, cream, broth, breadcrumbs, egg yolks, egg whites, and chopped lamb.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 12 ingredients
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Why it works: Butter and bread are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 7% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 27,232 recipes. Both carry delta-decalactone, which smells sweet, creamy. The science ↓

Lamb Souffle

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.

Make the sauce

  1. Melt the butter in a pan and cook the onion and green pepper until yellowed but not browned.

  2. Add the flour, salt, and paprika; cook until frothy.

  3. Gradually stir in the cream and lamb broth or boiling water; cook until the sauce boils.

  4. Strain the sauce over the bread crumbs.

Combine and bake

  1. Beat in the egg yolks and cook slightly, then remove from heat and stir in the chopped lamb.

  2. Fold in the beaten egg whites.

  3. Turn the mixture into a buttered dish and bake at 350°F (175°C) for about 25 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. Butter + breadtop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together27,232 recipes

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

  2. Butter + creamtop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together41,516 recipes

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

  3. Onion + peppertop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together68,474 recipes

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

  4. Pepper + lambtop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together3,165 recipes

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

  5. Butter + flourtop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together124,287 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
Beaten and folded in, they trap air and make the souffle rise and turn light.
Egg yolks
Thicken the sauce and enrich the mixture as it cooks gently, adding structure and richness.
Flour
Thickens the butter and liquid into a smooth sauce that holds the lamb and crumbs.
Cooked lamb
Provides the main savory flavor and substance of the souffle.
Bread crumbs
Soak up the strained sauce, adding body and a tender, moist texture.
Cream
Adds richness and moisture, softening the sauce's texture.

The step that matters

Fold in the beaten egg whites. Folding gently keeps the air bubbles in the whites intact; stirring or deflating them removes the trapped air, so the souffle will not rise properly.

Swap the onion

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (butter, pepper, flour, cream, lamb, bread, egg):

  1. Asparagusfits better
  2. Spinachfits better
  3. Potatofits better
  4. Onionthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against butter, pepper, flour, cream, lamb, bread, egg. 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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