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Cheese Souffle I

A baked cheese soufflé made with a white sauce, 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.

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

Bake and serve

  1. Chill the mixture, then fold in the beaten egg whites until stiff.

  2. Pour into a buttered baking dish or ramekins.

  3. Steam over gently boiling water for 20 to 25 minutes for individual servings, or 40 to 50 minutes for a large dish at 325°F (165°C).

  4. Serve immediately.

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

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

Flour
Thickens the butter and milk into a white sauce that gives the souffle its base structure.
Eggs
Yolks enrich the base, while whipped whites trap air and make the souffle rise and set.
Butter
Adds fat for richness and a smooth, tender texture in the white sauce.
Milk
Forms the liquid of the white sauce, which the flour thickens.
Cheese
Adds savory flavor and richness to the base.

The step that matters

Folding in the beaten egg whites. Stir gently and fold rather than beat, so the air trapped in the whites is kept. Overmixing deflates the foam, and the souffle will rise less 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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