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Dessert

Cheese Soufflé

A baked cheese soufflé made with flour, butter, milk, cream, eggs, Parmesan, English cheese, and optional mace or onion.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 11 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 Soufflé

Oven, in the book's wordsA good oven

Ingredients

Directions

The book says “a good oven”. The 350°F (175°C) in the steps is the modern equivalent, not the book's own figure.

Prepare the base

  1. Preheat the oven to 350°F (175°C).

  2. In a bowl, mix the flours, butter, milk, cream, salt, cayenne, egg yolks, and cheeses until smooth.

  3. For added flavor, infuse the milk with mace or onion before mixing.

Add the whites and bake

  1. In a separate bowl, beat the egg whites until stiff peaks form.

  2. Gently fold the egg whites into the cheese mixture.

  3. Pour the mixture into a prepared soufflé tin.

  4. Sprinkle the top with browned bread crumbs and dot with butter.

  5. Bake for 40-50 minutes until puffed and golden.

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 + creamtop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together41,516 recipes

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

  3. Butter + parmesan cheesetop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together4,163 recipes

    Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).

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

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

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

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

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 and lift the soufflé as it bakes.
Egg yolks
Add richness and help set the base as it cooks.
Parmesan cheese
Adds savoury flavour and body to the base.
Flour
Thickens the milk-based base so it holds the whipped whites.
Butter
Adds richness and flavour to the base.
Milk
Forms the liquid base that the flour thickens and the cheese melts into.

The step that matters

Folding the egg whites into the cheese mixture. Stirring or deflating the whipped whites releases the air that makes the soufflé rise. Fold gently with a large spatula until no white streaks remain, so the batter keeps its volume for baking.

Swap the potato

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (flour, butter, milk, cream, pepper, egg, parmesan cheese):

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

Fit is the average pairing score against flour, butter, milk, cream, pepper, egg, parmesan cheese. 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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