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Spinach Souffle

A baked spinach soufflé with butter, egg, cream, and spices, served on fried bread.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 11 ingredients
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Why it works: Spinach and nutmeg match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 4% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 603 recipes. Both carry coumarin, which smells sweet, hay. The science ↓

Spinach 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. Boil and chop the spinach, then stir in the butter, beaten egg, salt, nutmeg, sugar, and pepper while hot.

  2. Let the mixture cool.

Make the souffle

  1. Once cool, fold in the cream and the stiffly beaten egg whites.

  2. Pour the mixture into a baking dish and sprinkle powdered sugar on top.

Bake and serve

  1. Bake in a preheated oven at 400°F (200°C) for 10 minutes covered, then 5 minutes uncovered.

  2. Serve immediately on squares of fried bread.

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. Spinach + nutmegtop 4% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together603 recipes

    Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).

  2. Spinach + peppertop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together3,400 recipes

    Shared aroma: nonanal (fat, citrus).

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

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

  4. Nutmeg + peppertop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together13,015 recipes

    Shared aroma: 4'-methylacetophenone (bitter almond).

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

Egg whites
Whipped to foam, they trap air that lifts the souffle and gives it a light structure.
Beaten egg
Binds the chopped spinach and sets during baking to hold the souffle together.
Spinach
Provides the main body, color, and earthy flavor of the souffle.
Cream
Adds moisture and richness, keeping the souffle tender rather than dry.
Butter
Adds fat for richness and a smoother, more tender texture.

The step that matters

Fold in the egg whites gently. Whipped egg whites hold the air that makes a souffle rise. Stirring or deflating them vigorously knocks out air, so the souffle bakes flat and dense.

Swap the spinach

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (butter, egg, nutmeg, sugar, pepper, cream, bread):

  1. Capsicumfits about as well
  2. Spinachthe original
  3. Leekfits about as well
  4. Sweet potatofits about as well

Fit is the average pairing score against butter, egg, nutmeg, sugar, pepper, cream, bread. 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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