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Dessert

Chocolate Souffle

A baked chocolate soufflé made with milk, chocolate, sugar, butter, flour, and eggs.

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

Chocolate Souffle

Oven, in the book's wordsA moderate oven

Ingredients

Directions

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

Make the base

  1. Heat the milk in a double boiler.

  2. Beat the butter until creamy, then mix in the flour.

  3. Gradually pour the hot milk into the butter-flour mixture, stirring constantly.

  4. Return to the heat and cook for 6 minutes.

Add the chocolate and eggs

  1. In a small pan, combine the chocolate, sugar, and 2 tablespoons of water; stir over heat until smooth.

  2. Mix the chocolate mixture into the double boiler mixture.

  3. Remove from heat and stir in the beaten egg yolks; let cool.

  4. Once cool, fold in the beaten egg whites until stiff.

Bake and serve

  1. Pour the batter into a well-buttered dish and bake in a moderate oven (350°F) for 22 minutes.

  2. Serve immediately with vanilla cream sauce.

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. Chocolate + sugartop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together15,404 recipes

    Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).

  4. Milk + chocolatetop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together9,128 recipes

    Shared aroma: gamma-nonanolactone (coconut, sweet).

  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

Eggs
Yolks enrich and set the base, while whipped whites provide the airy lift.
Flour
Starch thickens the butter and milk mixture so it can hold the batter's structure.
Milk
Liquid that gelatinises the flour paste and adds moisture to the batter.
Chocolate
Supplies the main flavour and fat, and helps the batter set as it bakes.
Butter
Adds richness and flavour to the base and helps grease the dish for release.
Sugar
Sweetens the chocolate mixture and balances its bitterness.

The step that matters

Fold in the egg whites. Whites hold air only when whipped stiff, and a hot or heavy base deflates them. Folding gently, after the base has cooled, keeps the batter light so the soufflé rises.

“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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