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Cheese Souffle

A light, baked cheese soufflé made with butter, flour, milk, eggs, Parmesan, and pepper.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 9 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 hot oven

Ingredients

Directions

The book says “a hot oven”. The 400°F (200°C) in the steps is the modern equivalent, not the book's own figure.

Prepare the base

  1. In a saucepan, melt the butter over low heat.

  2. Add the mignonette pepper and fry for 2-3 minutes to extract its flavor.

  3. Strain the butter into a bowl to remove the pepper grains.

  4. Wash the saucepan to remove any remaining pepper.

  5. Return the flavored butter to the saucepan.

  6. Stir in the flour, salt, black pepper, and Cayenne pepper until well combined.

  7. Add the milk and stir until the mixture thickens.

  8. Remove from heat and let cool slightly.

Make the soufflé mixture

  1. Beat in the yolks of two eggs one at a time until well mixed.

  2. Grate the Parmesan cheese and add it to the mixture, stirring well.

  3. In a separate bowl, whip the egg whites with a pinch of salt until stiff peaks form.

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

Bake

  1. Prepare a pint-sized tin mold by greasing it with butter.

  2. Pour the mixture into the prepared mold.

  3. Bake in a hot oven at 400°F (200°C) for 20-30 minutes, checking occasionally to prevent burning.

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

    Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).

  3. Butter + flourtop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together124,287 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  4. Pepper + parmesan cheesetop 14% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together5,322 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl 2-methylbutyrate (fruity, apple).

  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

Eggs
Egg whites whipped to stiff peaks trap air, lifting the soufflé as it bakes.
Butter
Forms the fat base of the roux and carries the pepper flavor into the dish.
Flour
Thickens the butter and milk into a base that holds the risen structure.
Milk
Liquid that combines with the flour and butter to form a thick, smooth base.
Parmesan cheese
Adds salty, savory flavor and richness to the soufflé base.

The step that matters

Folding the egg whites into the cheese mixture. Folding gently keeps the air in the whipped whites. Stirring or deflating them makes the soufflé rise less and turn dense.

Swap the white pepper

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

  1. Nutmegfits better
  2. Parsleyfits better
  3. Cinnamonfits better
  4. White pepperthe original

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