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Cod Fish Souffle

A baked cod soufflé made with flour, butter, milk, eggs, and flaked codfish.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 5 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 ↓

Cod Fish Souffle

Ingredients

Directions

The book gives no oven temperature. The 350°F (175°C) in the steps was added when the recipe was transcribed, as a starting point.

Make the base

  1. In a saucepan, melt the butter and stir in the flour to make a roux.

  2. When bubbling, gradually add the milk and stir until thickened.

  3. Remove from heat and mix in the flaked codfish.

  4. Allow to cool slightly, then add the beaten egg yolks.

Bake and serve

  1. Fold in the beaten egg whites gently.

  2. Pour the mixture into a buttered baking dish.

  3. Bake at 350°F (175°C) for 30 minutes and serve immediately.

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. Flour + buttertop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together124,287 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  3. Flour + milktop 14% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together78,219 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  4. Flour + eggtop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together106,462 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  5. Butter + eggtop 17% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together118,967 recipes

    Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).

Flour and butter 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 yolks enrich the base, while whipped whites lighten the mixture and help it rise in the oven.
Flour
Forms a roux with the butter that thickens the milk into a stable, smooth base.
Milk
Liquid that, thickened with the roux, forms the creamy body of the soufflé.
Codfish
Provides the main flavour and substance of the soufflé.
Butter
Fat that combines with flour to make the roux and adds richness.

The step that matters

Fold in the beaten egg whites gently. Whites hold air bubbles that make the soufflé rise. Stirring or deflating them vigorously knocks out that air, so the soufflé bakes flat and dense.

“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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