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Tomato Souffle

A baked tomato and macaroni soufflé with butter, cheese, bread crumbs, mustard, and eggs.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 9 ingredients
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Why it works: Cheese and parmesan cheese match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 3% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 1,041 recipes. Both carry ethyl 2-methylbutyrate, which smells fruity, apple. The science ↓

Tomato Souffle

Oven, in the book's wordsA quick oven

Ingredients

Directions

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

Make the base

  1. Combine tomato pulp, butter, grated cheese, boiled macaroni, bread crumbs, and prepared mustard in a saucepan.

  2. Stir over medium heat until boiling, then remove from heat and let cool.

Bake and serve

  1. Add the beaten eggs and season with salt and pepper to taste.

  2. Pour the mixture into a buttered dish and bake in a 400°F (200°C) oven.

  3. Dust the top with grated Parmesan cheese before serving.

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. Cheese + parmesan cheesetop 3% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together1,041 recipes

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

  2. Butter + breadtop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together27,232 recipes

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

  3. Cheese + breadtop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together2,130 recipes

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

  4. Tomato + peppertop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together17,923 recipes

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

  5. Butter + cheesetop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together7,962 recipes

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

Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs

What each ingredient does

Eggs
Beaten eggs set the mixture into a light, airy structure as they cook.
Tomato pulp
Provides moisture and the main tomato flavour of the soufflé base.
Butter
Adds fat for richness and helps keep the mixture tender.
Grated cheese
Adds savoury flavour and fat to the base.
Boiled macaroni
Adds body and bulk to the base.
Bread crumbs
Absorb moisture and help give the base body.

The step that matters

Let the base cool before adding the eggs. If the hot base is not cooled, the beaten eggs can begin to scramble or cook unevenly instead of setting smoothly and evenly in the oven.

Swap the mustard

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

  1. Capsicumfits better
  2. Asparagusfits better
  3. Potatofits better
  4. Mustardthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against tomato, butter, cheese, bread, egg, pepper, 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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