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Savoubt Souffles, Salisbury Style

A savoury souffle made with cold game, ham, mushrooms, and truffles, folded with egg whites and baked.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 14 ingredients
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Why it works: Shallot and parsley match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 3,737 recipes. Both carry 2,4-decadienal, which smells seaweed. The science ↓

Savoubt Souffles, Salisbury Style

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 base

  1. Finely mince the cold game and mix with the chopped ham.

  2. Melt the butter in a saucepan and fry the shallots until soft.

  3. Add the minced game, mushrooms, and parsley; heat through.

  4. Stir in the brown sauce and season with pepper, salt, mace, and cayenne.

  5. Pass the mixture through a wire sieve into a small saucepan.

Add the eggs

  1. Stir in the egg yolks and chopped truffles.

  2. Beat the egg whites to stiff peaks and gently fold into the mixture.

Bake and serve

  1. Fill souffle cases with the mixture and bake at 350°F (175°C) for about 10 minutes.

  2. 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. Shallot + parsleytop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together3,737 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2,4-decadienal (seaweed).

  2. Parsley + peppertop 2% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together34,122 recipes

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

  3. Shallot + mushroomtop 4% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,982 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2,4-decadienal (seaweed).

  4. Butter + mushroomtop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together12,525 recipes

    Shared aroma: trans-2-decenal (waxy, orange).

  5. Mushroom + peppertop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together13,580 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).

Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs

What each ingredient does

Egg whites
Whipped to stiff peaks, they trap air and make the soufflé rise and set light.
Egg yolks
Enrich the base and help it set firmly as it cooks.
Cold game
Forms the main body of the mixture, giving it its meaty texture and flavour.
Butter
Adds richness and carries flavour when frying the shallots.
Truffles
Add a strong, earthy aroma to the finished soufflé.

The step that matters

Folding in the egg whites. Whites beaten to stiff peaks hold the air that lifts the soufflé. Folding gently keeps that air in; stirring vigorously deflates the foam, so the soufflé rises less and comes out denser.

Swap the mace

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (ham, butter, shallot, mushroom, parsley, sauce, pepper):

  1. Capersfits better
  2. Thymefits better
  3. Tarragonfits better
  4. Macethe original

Fit is the average pairing score against ham, butter, shallot, mushroom, parsley, sauce, pepper. 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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