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Chicken Souffle

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

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.

Prepare the base

  1. Chop the white meat of the chicken very fine until it measures 1 pint.

  2. In a saucepan, melt the butter, then add the flour and stir until mixed.

  3. Add the cream and stir until thick and smooth, then remove from heat.

  4. Stir in the bread crumbs, salt, red pepper, parsley, and beaten egg yolks.

Bake and serve

  1. Gently fold in the beaten egg whites until well combined.

  2. Pour the mixture into individual moulds or a baking dish.

  3. If using individual moulds, bake like chicken timbales; if using a baking dish, set it in a pan of hot water, cover with buttered paper, and bake for 20-25 minutes at 400°F (200°C).

  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 + creamtop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together41,516 recipes

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

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

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

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

Cooked chicken
Provides the main body and protein of the souffle, setting into a soft, sliceable mass.
Egg whites
Beaten whites trap air, lifting the mixture and giving the souffle its light, risen texture.
Egg yolks
Enrich the mixture and help bind it as it sets in the oven.
Cream
Adds moisture and richness, keeping the base tender after baking.
Flour
Thickens the butter and cream into a smooth base that holds the chicken in suspension.
Bread crumbs
Absorb liquid and add body, helping the mixture hold its shape.

The step that matters

Folding in the egg whites. Egg whites hold air only when beaten and folded in gently. Overmixing knocks out the air, so the souffle bakes flat and dense instead of rising.

Swap the parsley

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

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

Fit is the average pairing score against chicken, meat, butter, flour, cream, bread, 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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