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Fish Souffle

A light, airy baked fish dish made with a roux, milk, 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 sauce base

  1. In a saucepan, melt the butter over medium heat.

  2. Stir in the flour, salt, and cayenne pepper, cooking for 1-2 minutes.

  3. Gradually add the milk, stirring constantly until the mixture thickens.

  4. Remove from heat and let it cool slightly.

Build the soufflé

  1. Beat the egg yolks and mix them with the flaked fish into the sauce.

  2. In a separate bowl, beat the egg whites until stiff peaks form.

  3. Gently fold the egg whites into the fish mixture.

  4. Pour the mixture into a buttered baking dish.

Bake and serve

  1. Bake in a 350°F (175°C) oven or steam over gently boiling water for 30-35 minutes, or 20 minutes for small molds.

  2. 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
Egg whites whipped to stiff peaks trap air, lifting the soufflé as it bakes, while yolks enrich the set custard.
Flour
Cooked with butter and milk, it thickens the base into a sauce that holds the fish and air.
Butter
Enriches the roux and adds flavour and tenderness to the sauce base.
Milk
Forms the liquid of the thickened sauce, giving the soufflé its moist, creamy body.
Cooked fish
Provides the main flavour and body of the soufflé mixture.

The step that matters

Folding in the egg whites. Whites are whipped to stiff peaks to hold air. Folding gently keeps that air in; stirring hard deflates the foam, so the soufflé rises less and turns 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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