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 ↓
Souffles
Ingredients
Directions
Make the base
Combine potato starch, egg yolks, butter, and essence in a bowl.
Gradually stir in the milk while heating on the stove.
Stir continuously until the mixture reaches a boil.
Remove the mixture from heat.
Add the yolks
Beat the egg yolks with cold water.
Mix the beaten yolks into the mixture.
Prepare and bake
Beat the egg whites until stiff.
Gently fold the stiff egg whites into the mixture.
Grease a mold with butter.
Fill the mold two-thirds full.
Bake at 300°F (150°C) until set.
Flavor and serve
Flavor soufflés with coffee, lemon, orange, or other preferred essences.
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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Butter + milktop 7% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together81,283 recipes
Shared aroma: (z)-4-heptenal (biscuit, cream).
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Potato + milktop 9% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together3,611 recipes
Shared aroma: (e,z)-2,6-nonadienal (cucumber, melon).
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Potato + buttertop 13% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together6,456 recipes
Shared aroma: (z)-4-heptenal (biscuit, cream).
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Egg + buttertop 17% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together118,967 recipes
Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).
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Egg + milktop 18% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together88,785 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).
Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs
What each ingredient does
- Potato starch
- Thickens the milk base as it heats, giving the soufflé its structure once set.
- Egg yolks
- Add richness and help thicken and enrich the base.
- Egg whites
- Beaten to stiff foam, they trap air that lifts the soufflé as it bakes.
- Milk
- Forms the liquid base that the starch thickens into a smooth custard.
- Butter
- Adds fat for richness and a soft texture in the base.
The step that matters
Gently fold the stiff egg whites into the mixture. Stiff whites hold air bubbles that make the soufflé rise. Stirring or overmixing knocks out that air, so the soufflé bakes flat and dense instead of light and puffed.
Swap the potato
How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (egg, butter, milk):
- Potatothe original
- Asparagusfits about as well
- Chivefits less well
- Leekfits less well
Fit is the average pairing score against egg, butter, milk. 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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