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Cheese Souffle

A baked cheese soufflé made with butter, flour, milk, cayenne pepper, salt, grated cheese, and eggs.

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

Oven, in the book's wordsA slow oven

Ingredients

Directions

The book says “a slow oven”. The 300°F (150°C) in the steps is the modern equivalent, not the book's own figure.

Make the base

  1. In a saucepan, cook together the butter and flour over medium heat.

  2. Gradually add the scalded milk, cayenne pepper, and salt, stirring until smooth.

  3. Remove from heat and stir in the grated cheese.

Finish and bake

  1. Allow the mixture to cool slightly, then add the beaten egg yolks.

  2. In a separate bowl, beat the egg whites until stiff peaks form, then gently fold them into the cheese mixture.

  3. Pour the mixture into a buttered dish and bake at 300°F (150°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.

  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. Butter + flourtop 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).

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

Egg whites
Whipped to stiff peaks, they trap air that lifts the souffle as it bakes.
Egg yolks
Enrich the base and add richness and structure as they set with heat.
Flour
Thickens the butter and milk into a stable base that holds the air bubbles.
Butter
Cooked with the flour to form a roux, adding richness and body to the base.
Grated cheese
Adds savory flavor and fat, and helps give the base its body.
Milk
Forms the liquid base that the roux thickens into a smooth sauce.

The step that matters

Folding the egg whites into the cheese mixture. Whites must be whipped to stiff peaks and folded gently so the air stays trapped. Overmixing deflates the foam, and the souffle will rise less.

“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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