Skip to main content
Dessert

Souffle

A chocolate soufflé made by steaming a batter of butter, flour, cream, chocolate, sugar, egg yolks, and folded egg whites.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 8 ingredients
Jump to recipe ↓

Why it works: Vanilla and chocolate are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 5% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 10,020 recipes. Both carry sotolon, which smells curry, maple. The science ↓

Souffle

Ingredients

Directions

Make the base

  1. Melt the butter and flour together in a saucepan.

  2. Add the cream and cook for 2 minutes.

  3. Stir in the grated chocolate until melted.

  4. Remove from heat and let cool.

  5. Add the egg yolks and mix well.

Fold and steam

  1. Just before steaming, gently fold in the stiffly beaten egg whites.

  2. Steam in a mold placed in a saucepan of hot water for 1.5 hours.

  3. Ensure the water comes halfway up the mold and do not let it boil.

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. Vanilla + chocolatetop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together10,020 recipes

    Shared aroma: sotolon (curry, maple).

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

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

  3. Vanilla + sugartop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together35,032 recipes

    Shared aroma: beta-damascenone (apple, rose).

  4. Sugar + creamtop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together43,450 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2,3-butanedione (butter, sweet).

  5. Chocolate + creamtop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together5,466 recipes

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

Vanilla and sugar barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 35,032 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

Flour
Forms a starch-thickened base that gives the soufflé its body and structure.
Egg whites
Trapped air expands during steaming, lifting the soufflé and making it light.
Egg yolks
Enrich the base and add richness and a smooth, tender texture.
Butter
Adds fat for richness and a tender crumb, and helps form the base with the flour.
Grated chocolate
Adds flavour, richness and a deep colour to the base.
Cream
Adds moisture and richness, keeping the base soft and smooth.

The step that matters

Fold in the egg whites gently, just before steaming. Whipped egg whites hold air that makes the soufflé rise. Vigorous stirring or folding them in too early deflates the foam, so the soufflé comes out dense and flat.

“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.

More soufflé recipes

Cheese 198Omelette 114Potato 60Apple 58Prune 53Rice 50 See all 25 →

You might also like

Chocolate CreamChocolate Cream171 recipesVanilla Ice CreamVanilla Ice Cream108 recipesChocolate CookiesChocolate Cookies76 recipesChocolate FudgeChocolate Fudge55 recipes