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Chicken Souffles

A baked dish of chicken and ham folded into a light, airy soufflé with a breadcrumb topping.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 10 ingredients
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Why it works: Lemon and pepper match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 3% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 27,047 recipes. Both carry trans-2-nonenal, which smells cardboard, fatty. The science ↓

Chicken Souffles

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

  1. Preheat the oven to 400°F (200°C).

  2. Chop the chicken and ham finely.

Make the base

  1. Melt the butter in a saucepan.

  2. Stir in the flour.

  3. Add the stock or milk.

  4. Bring to a boil.

  5. Remove from heat.

  6. Stir in one egg yolk.

  7. Add the chopped meats, seasoning, and lemon juice.

  8. Gently fold in the stiffly whipped egg whites.

Bake and serve

  1. Pour the mixture into well-buttered ramekin cases.

  2. Sprinkle brown breadcrumbs on top.

  3. Bake for 15 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. Lemon + peppertop 3% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together27,047 recipes

    Shared aroma: trans-2-nonenal (cardboard, fatty).

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

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

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

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  4. Chicken + milktop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together4,389 recipes

    Shared aroma: 1-hexanal (fruit).

  5. Chicken + hamtop 14% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,497 recipes

    Shared aroma: 1-octen-3-ol (mushroom, earthy).

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

Eggs
Whipped whites lift the mixture, and the yolks enrich it and help it set.
Butter
Fat enriches the base and coats the flour for a smooth, rich sauce.
Flour
Starch thickens the butter and stock into a sauce that holds the meats and air.
Stock or milk
Liquid forms the thick base that the flour thickens into a sauce.
Chicken
Cooked chicken provides the main flavour and body of the souffle.

The step that matters

Gently fold in the stiffly whipped egg whites. Folding gently keeps the air bubbles in the whites intact. Those bubbles expand in the oven and make the souffle rise; stirring or deflating them leaves it flat and dense.

“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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