Why it works: Bread and butter 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 ↓
Cheese Souffle II
Ingredients
Directions
Make the base
Add milk to bread crumbs.
When the bread is soft, add cheese, butter, salt, and beaten egg yolks.
Fold and bake
Fold in egg whites beaten until stiff.
Turn into a buttered baking dish.
Bake in a water bath for 20 to 25 minutes for individual servings or 40 to 50 minutes for a large dish.
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.
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Bread + buttertop 7% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together27,232 recipes
Shared aroma: delta-decalactone (sweet, creamy).
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Milk + buttertop 7% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together81,283 recipes
Shared aroma: (z)-4-heptenal (biscuit, cream).
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Bread + cheesetop 7% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together2,130 recipes
Shared aroma: delta-decalactone (sweet, creamy).
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Cheese + buttertop 8% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together7,962 recipes
Shared aroma: delta-dodecalactone (sweet, creamy).
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Milk + cheesetop 10% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together4,426 recipes
Shared aroma: delta-dodecalactone (sweet, creamy).
Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs
What each ingredient does
- Eggs
- Yolks enrich the base and whites, beaten stiff, lift the mixture to give the souffle its airy rise.
- Bread crumbs
- Soak up milk to form a soft, thickened base that gives the souffle body.
- Grated cheese
- Adds rich flavor and fat, giving the souffle its savory taste and tender texture.
- Milk
- Hydrates the bread crumbs and forms the liquid base that carries the other ingredients.
The step that matters
Fold in egg whites beaten until stiff. Folding gently keeps the air beaten into the whites. Stirring or deflating the mixture causes the souffle to fall and turn dense instead of rising in the oven.
“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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