Why it works: Pepper and lemon match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 3% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 27,047 recipes. Both carry trans-2-nonenal, which smells cardboard, fatty. The science ↓
Fish Soufflé
Ingredients
Directions
The book gives no oven temperature. The 300°F (150°C) in the steps was added when the recipe was transcribed, as a starting point.
Prepare the fish
Remove skin and bones from the fish and mash it through a sieve or pound in a mortar.
Make a little stock from the fish bones and reduce it to 1-2 tablespoons.
Make the base
Mix the stock with the milk and flour, then bring to a boil.
Add the egg yolks and fish to the mixture.
Fold and bake
Fold in the stiffly beaten egg whites when the mixture is cool.
Pour into a buttered pie dish and bake at 300°F (150°C) for about 20 minutes.
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.
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Pepper + lemontop 3% of all pairsSmell alikestrongCooked together27,047 recipes
Shared aroma: trans-2-nonenal (cardboard, fatty).
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Rice + milktop 7% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together7,374 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).
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Rice + peppertop 12% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together8,379 recipes
Shared aroma: trans-2-nonenal (cardboard, fatty).
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Rice + lemontop 12% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together4,366 recipes
Shared aroma: (e,e)-2,4-decadienal (fatty, deep fried).
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Milk + fishtop 13% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked 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
- White fish
- Provides the main flavour and the body of the soufflé.
- Egg whites
- Whipped into foam, they trap air so the soufflé rises and becomes light.
- Egg
- Its yolk enriches the base and helps the mixture set as it bakes.
- Milk
- Adds moisture and creaminess to the base.
- Rice flour or corn flour
- Thickens the liquid so the base is stable enough to hold the whipped whites.
The step that matters
Folding in the stiffly beaten egg whites. Fold gently and only once the mixture has cooled, because heat or vigorous stirring makes the whites lose their trapped air, which prevents the soufflé from rising.
“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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