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Chicken Souffle

A baked chicken soufflé made with cooked chicken, French white sauce, eggs, nutmeg, pepper, salt, and grated cheese.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 7 ingredients
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Why it works: Nutmeg and white pepper are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 13% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 1,375 recipes. Both carry eucalyptol, which smells eucalyptus, herbal. The science ↓

Chicken Souffle

Oven, in the book's wordsA moderately quick oven

Ingredients

Directions

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

Prepare the chicken base

  1. Pound the cold chicken in a mortar until smooth.

  2. Mix in the French white sauce and pass through a sieve.

  3. Combine the yolks of the eggs with the chicken mixture and season with nutmeg, white pepper, and salt.

Make the soufflé mixture

  1. Whip the egg whites to stiff peaks and gently fold into the chicken mixture.

Bake and serve

  1. Fill paper cases with the mixture and sprinkle grated cheese on top.

  2. Bake in a preheated oven at 400°F (200°C) for 10 to 15 minutes.

  3. Serve immediately on a napkin.

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. Nutmeg + white peppertop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together1,375 recipes

    Shared aroma: eucalyptol (eucalyptus, herbal).

  2. Chicken + cheesetop 14% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,936 recipes

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

  3. Egg + nutmegtop 17% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together24,744 recipes

    Shared aroma: acetic acid (sour, vinegar).

  4. Sauce + cheesetop 19% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together1,987 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).

  5. Egg + white peppertop 21% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together2,312 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-methylbutyraldehyde (malty, chocolate).

Egg and nutmeg barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 24,744 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
Whipped whites trap air for lift, while yolks enrich the mixture and help it set.
Cold chicken
Forms the main body of the soufflé, giving it savory flavor and substance.
French white sauce
Adds moisture and body, helping the chicken mixture hold together and stay creamy.
Grated cheese
Melts and browns on top, adding savory flavor and a golden crust.

The step that matters

Folding in the egg whites. Whites hold air only when whipped to stiff peaks. Folding gently keeps that air in, so the soufflé rises in the oven rather than collapsing.

Swap the white pepper

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (chicken, sauce, egg, nutmeg, cheese):

  1. Capersfits better
  2. Tarragonfits better
  3. Cinnamonfits better
  4. White pepperthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against chicken, sauce, egg, nutmeg, cheese. 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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