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Chicken Souffles

A baked chicken soufflé made with pounded chicken, eggs, truffles, spices, 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: Pepper and nutmeg match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 7% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 13,015 recipes. Both carry 4'-methylacetophenone, which smells bitter almond. The science ↓

Chicken Souffles

Oven, in the book's wordsA moderate oven

Ingredients

Directions

The book says “a moderate oven”. The 350°F (175°C) in the steps is the modern equivalent, not the book's own figure.

Prepare the mixture

  1. Pound the chicken breast in a mortar and press it through a sieve.

  2. In a bowl, mix the pounded chicken with egg yolks, truffles, salt, cayenne, and nutmeg.

  3. Fold in the whipped cream and beaten egg whites gently.

Bake and serve

  1. Fill paper cases two-thirds full with the mixture.

  2. Bake in a preheated oven at 350°F (175°C) for 15 minutes.

  3. Serve on a napkin on a dish, optionally with tomato or cream sauce.

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. Pepper + nutmegtop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together13,015 recipes

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

  2. Nutmeg + creamtop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together7,920 recipes

    Shared aroma: acetic acid (sour, vinegar).

  3. Chicken + truffletop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together756 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2,4-nonadienal (fatty, green).

  4. Chicken + peppertop 16% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together19,958 recipes

    Shared aroma: piperonal (bitter, coconut).

  5. Egg + nutmegtop 17% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together24,744 recipes

    Shared aroma: acetic acid (sour, vinegar).

Egg and nutmeg barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 24,744 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

Chicken breast
Provides the main protein that sets into the soufflé's body once cooked.
Egg yolks
Add richness and fat, and help bind the chicken into a smooth base.
Egg whites
Whipped to foam, they trap air and make the soufflé rise and turn light.
Whipped cream
Adds moisture and tenderness, keeping the soufflé soft and creamy inside.
Truffles
Contribute a deep, earthy aroma to the mixture.

The step that matters

Folding in the whipped cream and egg whites. Folding gently keeps the air bubbles in the whipped egg whites intact. Stirring vigorously deflates the foam, so the soufflé bakes flat and dense instead of rising.

Swap the nutmeg

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (chicken, egg, truffle, pepper, cream):

  1. Nutmegthe original
  2. Tarragonfits about as well
  3. Parsleyfits about as well
  4. Garlicfits about as well

Fit is the average pairing score against chicken, egg, truffle, pepper, cream. 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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