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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. Melt butter.

  2. Whisk in flour, salt, and cayenne.

  3. Gradually add milk and cook until thickened.

  4. Remove from heat and stir in beaten egg yolks and grated cheese.

  5. Chill the mixture.

Assemble and bake

  1. Fold in the beaten egg whites until combined.

  2. Pour into a buttered baking dish or ramekins.

  3. Bake in a water bath at 275°F (135°C) for 20-25 minutes for individual servings or 40-50 minutes for a large soufflé.

  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
Egg whites trapped by folding provide the air that lifts the soufflé, while yolks enrich the base.
Flour
Flour thickens the butter and milk into a stable base that holds the air and cheese.
Butter
Butter forms the fat base with flour, adding richness and flavor to the roux.
Milk
Milk, thickened with the roux, forms the liquid body of the soufflé base.
Grated cheese
Cheese adds savory flavor and fat, and helps give the base its body.

The step that matters

Fold in the beaten egg whites until combined. Overmixing knocks out the air trapped in the whites, while undermixing leaves streaks of white. Both lead to a soufflé that rises poorly or falls.

“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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