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Chicken Souffle with Mushroom Sauce

A baked chicken soufflé topped with a creamy mushroom sauce.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 15 ingredients
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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 ↓

Chicken Souffle with Mushroom Sauce

Oven, in the book's wordsA slow oven

Ingredients

Directions

The book says “a slow oven”. The 300°F (150°C) in the steps is the modern equivalent, not the book's own figure.

Make the base

  1. Melt 2 tablespoons of butter in a saucepan and mix it with 2 tablespoons of flour.

  2. Add 2 cups of scalded milk, 1 teaspoon of salt, and ¼ teaspoon of pepper, then cook for 10 minutes.

  3. Stir in ½ cup of stale breadcrumbs and remove from heat.

  4. Add 2 cups of chopped cooked chicken, 1 tablespoon of minced parsley, and 3 beaten egg yolks.

  5. Fold in 3 beaten egg whites until well combined.

Bake

  1. Pour the mixture into well-buttered muffin tins, filling them about two-thirds full.

  2. Place the tins in a dripping pan with a little boiling water.

  3. Bake at 300°F (150°C) for 35 minutes.

Make the mushroom sauce and serve

  1. Melt ¼ cup of butter in a saucepan for the mushroom sauce and stir in ¼ cup of flour.

  2. Gradually add 1½ cups of chicken stock and ½ cup of cream.

  3. Season with salt and pepper to taste and cook for 5 minutes.

  4. Add ¾ cup of cooked and chopped mushrooms and heat through before serving.

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 + parsleytop 2% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together34,122 recipes

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

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

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

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

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  4. Flour + parsleytop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together16,675 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  5. Milk + chickentop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together4,389 recipes

    Shared aroma: 1-hexanal (fruit).

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
Beaten egg whites trap air, lifting the soufflé as it bakes and sets.
Flour
Thickens the butter and milk into a base that holds the chicken and egg.
Milk
Forms the liquid base of the soufflé, giving a soft, custard-like body.
Cooked chicken
Provides the main protein and bulk, giving the soufflé its savoury flavour.
Chicken stock
Gives the mushroom sauce its savoury body and flavour.
Cream
Adds richness and smoothness to the mushroom sauce.

The step that matters

Folding in the egg whites. Egg whites must be folded gently so they keep the air beaten into them. Stirring or deflating them loses the lift that makes the soufflé rise and become light.

Swap the parsley

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

  1. Nutmegfits about as well
  2. Parsleythe original
  3. Capersfits about as well
  4. Tarragonfits about as well

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