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Dessert

Cheese Souffle

A baked cheese soufflé made with milk, butter, flour, egg yolks, Parmesan, whipped cream, and beaten egg whites.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 8 ingredients
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Why it works: Milk and butter 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.

Make the base

  1. In a saucepan, combine boiling milk and butter over heat.

  2. Add sifted flour and stir until it forms a paste that pulls away from the bottom.

  3. Transfer the paste to a bowl and let it cool slightly.

  4. Gradually mix in egg yolks, Parmesan cheese, whipped cream, and melted butter.

Fold and bake

  1. Fold in beaten egg whites gently.

  2. Pour the mixture into a buttered soufflé dish.

  3. Place the dish in a pan of hot water, ensuring water reaches halfway up the dish.

  4. Bake at 400°F (200°C) for about 25 minutes, until set.

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. Milk + buttertop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together81,283 recipes

    Shared aroma: (z)-4-heptenal (biscuit, cream).

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

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

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

    Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).

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

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  5. Milk + flourtop 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

Egg whites
Trapped air in the beaten whites expands in the oven, lifting the soufflé and giving it its height.
Egg yolks
Their proteins set during baking, giving the soufflé a custard-like structure and richness.
Flour
Thickens the milk and butter into a paste that holds the base together and supports the rise.
Parmesan cheese
Adds savoury, salty flavour and a little body to the base.
Whipped cream
Adds moisture and richness, keeping the texture soft and creamy.

The step that matters

Folding in the egg whites gently. Beaten egg whites hold air bubbles that make the soufflé rise. Stirring or pressing them hard deflates the foam, 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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