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Cheese Souffle I

A steamed cheese soufflé made with a béchamel base, eggs, 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 I

Ingredients

Directions

Make the base

  1. Make a thick white sauce with flour, butter, salt, cayenne, and milk over medium heat.

  2. Remove from heat; add beaten egg yolks and cheese, mixing well.

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

Bake and serve

  1. Pour into a buttered baking dish or ramekins.

  2. Steam over gently boiling water for 20-25 minutes for individual servings or 40-50 minutes for a large dish at 275°F (135°C), increasing to 325°F (160°C) halfway through.

  3. Test for doneness by inserting a knitting needle in the center; it should come out clean.

  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. Flour + buttertop 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).

Flour and butter 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 for lift, and yolks enrich the base and help set the custard.
Flour
Starch in the white sauce thickens the milk and gives the souffle its structure.
Butter
Fat in the roux adds richness and smooth texture to the base.
Milk
Liquid that, with flour and butter, forms the thick white sauce base.
Cheese
Adds savory flavor and fat, and helps the base set as it cooks.

The step that matters

Fold in the egg whites. Folding gently keeps the air beaten into the whites; stirring or deflating them makes the souffle rise poorly and turn 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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