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Souffle of Partridges

A soufflé made from partridges, brown stock, butter, nutmeg, egg yolks, and egg whites.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 6 ingredients
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Why it works: Butter and nutmeg are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 16% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 24,377 recipes. Both carry eucalyptol, which smells eucalyptus, herbal. The science ↓

Souffle of Partridges

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the partridge

  1. Remove all the meat from the bones of the partridges.

  2. Take off the skin of the partridges.

  3. Pound the meat with the livers in a mortar.

  4. Warm the pounded meat in the brown stock.

  5. Strain the warmed meat.

Make the gravy and base

  1. Boil the bodies, bones, and skin from the birds to make gravy.

  2. Strain the gravy.

  3. Moisten some roux with the gravy.

  4. Reduce the roux until it is half the consistency of glaze.

  5. Add the pounded meat to the reduced gravy.

  6. Add a small piece of butter.

  7. Add a pinch of nutmeg.

Bake and serve

  1. Gradually beat in the egg yolks.

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

  3. Pour the mixture into a paper souffle case.

  4. Bake in the oven.

  5. Serve as soon as it rises.

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. Butter + nutmegtop 16% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together24,377 recipes

    Shared aroma: eucalyptol (eucalyptus, herbal).

  2. Butter + eggtop 17% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together118,967 recipes

    Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).

  3. Nutmeg + eggtop 17% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together24,744 recipes

    Shared aroma: acetic acid (sour, vinegar).

Nutmeg and egg 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

Partridges
Provide the main meat that gives the soufflé its flavour and body.
Egg yolks
Enrich the base and add richness and structure as they set when baked.
Egg whites
Whipped into a froth, they trap air so the soufflé rises and becomes light.
Brown stock
Moistens the pounded meat and carries savoury flavour through the base.
Roux (in the method)
Thickens the gravy so the mixture holds together before the eggs are added.

The step that matters

Fold the froth into the mixture. Folding gently keeps the air in the whipped egg whites. Stirring or deflating them makes the soufflé fall instead of rising.

Swap the nutmeg

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (butter, egg):

  1. Nutmegthe original
  2. Parsleyfits about as well
  3. Capersfits about as well
  4. Tarragonfits less well

Fit is the average pairing score against butter, 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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