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Chicken Souffle

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

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 9 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 hot oven

Ingredients

Directions

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

Make the sauce

  1. Melt the butter in a saucepan.

  2. Add the flour, salt, and pepper.

  3. Cook for 10 minutes, stirring until smooth.

Add the chicken and eggs

  1. Mix the chicken with the remaining seasonings.

  2. Combine the sauce and chicken.

  3. Stir in the beaten egg yolks.

  4. Cook over low heat for 5 minutes.

  5. Set aside to cool.

Bake and serve

  1. Beat the egg whites until stiff.

  2. Fold the egg whites into the chicken mixture.

  3. Pour into a buttered pudding dish.

  4. Bake at 400°F (200°C) for 20 minutes.

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

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

  3. Chicken + oniontop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together17,814 recipes

    Shared aroma: gamma-nonanolactone (coconut, sweet).

  4. Parsley + oniontop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together25,843 recipes

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

  5. Pepper + oniontop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together68,474 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).

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

What each ingredient does

Butter
Adds richness and flavour to the base sauce.
Flour
Thickens the milk or stock into a smooth sauce as its starch swells when heated.
Milk or chicken stock
Forms the liquid base of the sauce that carries the chicken.
Chicken
Provides the main protein, bulk and savoury flavour.
Eggs
Yolks enrich and bind the mixture, while whipped whites trap air so the souffle rises and sets.

The step that matters

Fold the egg whites into the chicken mixture. Whipped whites hold the air that makes a souffle rise. Folding gently keeps that air in; vigorous stirring deflates the mixture so it bakes flat and dense.

Swap the onion

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

  1. Potatofits better
  2. Capsicumfits better
  3. Leekfits better
  4. Onionthe original

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