Name: Chicken Soufflé
Ingredients: 2 cups scalded milk; ⅛ cup butter; ⅛ cup flour; 1 teaspoon salt; ⅛ teaspoon pepper; ½ cup stale soft bread crumbs; 2 cups cold cooked chicken, finely chopped; Yolks 3 eggs, well beaten; 1 tablespoon finely chopped parsley; Whites 3 eggs, beaten stiff

Why it works: Pepper and parsley match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 2% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 34,122 recipes. Both carry 4'-methylacetophenone, which smells bitter almond. The science ↓

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.

Pepper + parsleytop 2% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together34,122 recipes

Shared aroma: 4'-methylacetophenone (bitter almond).
Butter + breadtop 7% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together27,232 recipes

Shared aroma: delta-decalactone (sweet, creamy).
Milk + buttertop 7% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together81,283 recipes

Shared aroma: (z)-4-heptenal (biscuit, cream).
Milk + breadtop 11% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together11,466 recipes

Shared aroma: 2-undecenal (sweet).
Butter + flourtop 12% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked together124,287 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

Eggs: Whites beaten stiff trap air and make the soufflé rise; yolks enrich the custard-like base.
Milk: Forms the liquid base of the white sauce that the other ingredients are folded into.
Butter: Fat that combines with flour to form a roux, giving the sauce body and richness.
Flour: Thickens the milk and butter into a sauce that holds the soufflé together.
Cooked chicken: Provides the main protein and savory flavor of the dish.

The step that matters

Fold in whites of eggs. Folding gently keeps the air beaten into the stiff egg whites. Stirring or deflating them removes that air, so the soufflé will not rise as much in the oven.

Swap the parsley

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (milk, butter, flour, pepper, bread, chicken, egg):

Nutmegfits about as well
Parsleythe original
Cinnamonfits about as well
Thymefits about as well

Fit is the average pairing score against milk, butter, flour, pepper, bread, chicken, egg. 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.

Ingredient	Portion assumed	kcal
Flour	1 cup (125g) all-purpose	455
Chicken	100g cooked	165
Milk	1 cup (244ml) whole	149
Butter	1 tbsp (14g)	102
Egg	1 large egg (50g)	78
Black Pepper	1 tsp ground (2.3g)	6
Parsley	1 tbsp chopped fresh (3.8g)	1
Salt	1 tsp (6g)	0

Chicken Soufflé