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Dessert

Cheese Souffle

A baked cheese soufflé made with cheese, milk, bread crumbs, butter, eggs, salt, and cayenne pepper.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 8 ingredients
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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

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.

Make the base

  1. Boil the bread crumbs and milk together, stirring until smooth.

  2. Add the grated cheese and butter, stirring for a couple of minutes.

  3. Remove from heat and mix in the salt, cayenne, and egg yolks.

Bake

  1. Beat the egg whites until stiff and gently fold them into the mixture.

  2. Pour into a greased baking dish and bake for 15 minutes at 400°F (200°C).

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. Bread + buttertop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together27,232 recipes

    Shared aroma: delta-decalactone (sweet, creamy).

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

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

  3. Cheese + breadtop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together2,130 recipes

    Shared aroma: delta-decalactone (sweet, creamy).

  4. Cheese + buttertop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together7,962 recipes

    Shared aroma: delta-dodecalactone (sweet, creamy).

  5. Cheese + milktop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked 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

Egg whites
Beaten until stiff, they trap air and give the soufflé its light, risen structure.
Egg yolks
Enrich the base and help it set into a tender, custard-like texture as it bakes.
Grated cheese
Adds rich flavour and fat, and its proteins help set the structure as it cooks.
Milk
Forms the liquid base with the bread crumbs, adding moisture and body to the mixture.
Bread crumbs
Thicken the milk into a smooth base that holds the mixture together.
Butter
Adds richness and fat, giving the base a smooth, silky mouthfeel.

The step that matters

Fold the egg whites gently. Folding gently keeps the air trapped in the stiffly beaten whites. Stirring vigorously deflates the foam, so the soufflé rises less and turns out 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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