Name: Meat Souffle
Ingredients: 1 teaspoon butter; 1 tablespoon flour; ½ teaspoon coarse sea salt; a little pepper; 1 cup milk; 1 slice onion (optional); 1 cup finely chopped cooked beef, mutton, veal, lamb, or ham; 2 egg yolks; 2 egg whites

Why it works: Onion and beef are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 7% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 17,092 recipes. Both carry 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine, which smells earthy, pea. The science ↓

Meat Souffle

Ingredients

Directions

The book gives no oven temperature. The 400°F (200°C) in the steps was added when the recipe was transcribed, as a starting point.

Make the base

Melt the butter in a saucepan.
Stir in the flour, salt, and pepper.
Bring the milk and onion to a boil. Remove the onion.
Gradually stir the hot milk into the flour mixture until smooth.
Add the chopped meat and heat through.
Remove from heat.
Allow to cool slightly.

Bake and serve

Stir in the beaten egg yolks.
Gently fold in the stiffly beaten egg whites.
Pour the mixture into a buttered baking dish.
Bake at 400°F (200°C) for 20 minutes.

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.

Onion + beeftop 7% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together17,092 recipes

Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).
Butter + milktop 7% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together81,283 recipes

Shared aroma: (z)-4-heptenal (biscuit, cream).
Pepper + beeftop 10% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together18,971 recipes

Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).
Pepper + oniontop 11% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together68,474 recipes

Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).
Butter + flourtop 12% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked together124,287 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: Whipped whites trap air that lifts the mixture as it bakes, giving the soufflé its rise.
Flour: Thickens the butter and milk into a smooth white sauce that holds the soufflé together.
Milk: Forms the liquid base of the sauce, adding moisture and a soft, creamy texture.
Cooked meat: Provides the main savory filling, distributed through the light custard base.
Butter: Adds richness and flavor to the base and greases the dish so the soufflé releases cleanly.

The step that matters

Fold in the egg whites gently. Stiffly beaten whites hold the air that makes the soufflé rise. Stirring or deflating them vigorously knocks out this air, so the soufflé bakes flat and dense. Fold in with a light, lifting motion until just combined.

Swap the onion

The recipe marks onion as optional. How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (butter, flour, pepper, milk, beef, egg):

Potatofits better
Capsicumfits better
Chivefits better
Onionthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against butter, flour, pepper, milk, beef, egg. 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.