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Chicken Souffle

A baked chicken soufflé made with butter, flour, milk, breadcrumbs, seasonings, and eggs.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 10 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

Oven, in the book's wordsA quick oven

Ingredients

Directions

The book says “a quick oven”. The 400°F (200°C) in the steps is the modern equivalent, not the book's own figure.

Make the base

  1. Melt the butter in a saucepan.

  2. Stir in the flour until smooth, then add the milk and stir until it boils.

  3. Add the stale bread crumbs and cook for 1 minute.

Assemble and bake

  1. Remove from heat and add salt, pepper, parsley, chopped chicken, and beaten egg yolks.

  2. Beat the egg whites to a stiff froth and gently fold them into the mixture.

  3. Butter a baking dish, pour in the mixture, and bake at 400°F (200°C) for 20 minutes.

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

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

  2. Butter + breadtop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together27,232 recipes

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

  3. Butter + milktop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together81,283 recipes

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

  4. Milk + breadtop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together11,466 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-undecenal (sweet).

  5. 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

Egg whites
Beaten to a stiff froth, they trap air that makes the souffle rise and become light.
Egg yolks
Enrich the base and help it set into a tender, custardy texture as it bakes.
Flour
Thickens the butter and milk into a smooth white sauce that holds the souffle together.
Milk
Forms the liquid base of the white sauce, adding moisture and softness.
Chopped chicken
Provides the main protein and savory flavor of the dish.

The step that matters

Folding in the egg whites. Stir too vigorously and the whites deflate, losing the trapped air that makes the souffle rise. Fold gently with a spatula so the mixture stays light.

Swap the parsley

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

  1. Nutmegfits about as well
  2. Parsleythe original
  3. Cinnamonfits about as well
  4. Thymefits about as well

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

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