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Salt Fish Souffle

A baked potato and salt fish soufflé with a fluffy egg topping.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 7 ingredients
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Why it works: Milk and butter 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 ↓

Salt Fish Souffle

Oven, in the book's wordsA quick oven

Ingredients

Directions

The book says “a quick oven”. The 400°F (200°C) in the steps is the modern equivalent, not the book's own figure.

Prepare the potatoes

  1. Pare the potatoes.

  2. Boil the potatoes for 30 minutes.

  3. Drain the potatoes.

  4. Mash the potatoes finely.

Make the fish base

  1. Mix the mashed potatoes thoroughly with the salt fish.

  2. Add the butter, salt, pepper, and hot milk.

  3. Stir in 2 beaten eggs.

  4. Heat the mixture in the serving dish for 10 minutes in the oven at 400°F (200°C).

Top and bake

  1. Beat the whites of the remaining 2 eggs to stiff peaks.

  2. Fold the beaten yolks into the whites.

  3. Spread the egg mixture over the fish mixture.

  4. Return the dish to the oven.

  5. Brown the top.

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. Milk + buttertop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together81,283 recipes

    Shared aroma: (z)-4-heptenal (biscuit, cream).

  2. Potato + peppertop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together8,305 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).

  3. Potato + milktop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together3,611 recipes

    Shared aroma: (e,z)-2,6-nonadienal (cucumber, melon).

  4. Fish + buttertop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together4,488 recipes

    Shared aroma: (z)-4-heptenal (biscuit, cream).

  5. Fish + milktop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,432 recipes

    Shared aroma: 4-heptenal (creamy, biscuit).

Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs

What each ingredient does

Eggs
Whites whipped to stiff peaks create the airy, rising structure of the soufflé topping.
Potatoes
Mashed potatoes form the soft, bulky body that holds the fish together.
Salt fish
Provides the main savoury flavour and substance of the dish.
Milk
Adds moisture and softness to the mashed potato base.
Butter
Adds richness and fat, softening the texture and improving flavour.

The step that matters

Beating the egg whites to stiff peaks. Whites must be beaten until stiff but not dry, and folded gently, so they trap air. Over-beating or deflating them during folding makes the soufflé flat and dense when baked.

Swap the potato

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (fish, milk, egg, pepper, butter):

  1. Potatothe original
  2. Capsicumfits about as well
  3. Asparagusfits less well
  4. Chivefits less well

Fit is the average pairing score against fish, milk, egg, pepper, butter. Candidates are from the same food group and used in at least 100 recipes.

“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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