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Fish Souffle

A baked fish dish made with a white sauce, eggs, and flaked fish.

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 ↓

Fish 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

  1. Make a white sauce by melting the butter, adding flour, and gradually whisking in the milk until thick.

  2. Remove from heat and stir in the beaten egg yolks and flaked fish.

  3. Chill the mixture, then fold in the stiffly beaten egg whites.

Bake and serve

  1. Pour the mixture into a buttered baking dish.

  2. Bake in a water bath at 350°F (175°C) for 30 to 35 minutes, or in small molds for about 20 minutes.

  3. Serve immediately with Drawn Butter or Tomato 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. Butter + milktop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together81,283 recipes

    Shared aroma: (z)-4-heptenal (biscuit, cream).

  2. Butter + fishtop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together4,488 recipes

    Shared aroma: (z)-4-heptenal (biscuit, cream).

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

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  4. Milk + fishtop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,432 recipes

    Shared aroma: 4-heptenal (creamy, biscuit).

  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

Eggs
Whipped whites trap air and make the soufflé rise, while yolks enrich the custard and help it set.
Flour
Thickens the butter and milk into a white sauce that gives the soufflé its body.
Milk
Forms the liquid base of the white sauce, adding moisture and softness.
Butter
Enriches the white sauce with fat and flavour, and greases the dish so the soufflé releases cleanly.
Cooked fish
Provides the main flavour and protein that sets into the soufflé's texture.

The step that matters

Fold in the egg whites gently. Whites hold air only while whipped; vigorous stirring knocks it out, so the soufflé will rise less and turn dense. Folding keeps the foam intact for lift.

“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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