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Small Game Souffles

A soufflé made with cold game meat, rice, butter, sauce, and eggs, baked and served with sauce.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 12 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 ↓

Small Game Souffles

Oven, in the book's wordsA brisk oven

Ingredients

Directions

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

Prepare the mixture

  1. Remove all meat from the bones and skin of the cold game.

  2. Pound the meat in a mortar with cooked rice, butter, brown sauce, and meat glaze to moisten.

  3. Season with salt, pepper, nutmeg, and herbs; bind with 1-2 yolks of raw eggs.

  4. Rub the mixture through a sieve and gently mix in the whipped egg whites.

Bake and serve

  1. Pour the mixture into well-greased small timbale molds and bake in a 400°F (200°C) oven.

  2. Turn out onto a dish, sauce with salmi or poivrade, sprinkle with parsley, and serve.

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. Nutmeg + parsleytop 3% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together5,062 recipes

    Shared aroma: 4'-methylacetophenone (bitter almond).

  3. Pepper + nutmegtop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together13,015 recipes

    Shared aroma: 4'-methylacetophenone (bitter almond).

  4. Rice + nutmegtop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,779 recipes

    Shared aroma: 4'-methylacetophenone (bitter almond).

  5. Rice + parsleytop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together2,762 recipes

    Shared aroma: 4'-methylacetophenone (bitter almond).

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

What each ingredient does

Egg whites
Whipped into the mixture to lighten it and help it rise during baking.
Raw egg yolks
Bind the mixture together so it holds its shape when set by heat.
Cold game meat
Forms the main body of the soufflé and gives it its savory flavor.
Cooked rice
Adds body and helps the mixture hold moisture for a tender texture.
Fresh butter
Adds richness and moisture, softening the texture of the mixture.

The step that matters

Gently mixing in the whipped egg whites. Egg whites trap air that makes the soufflé rise. Folding them in gently keeps that air from collapsing, so the soufflé bakes up light rather than dense.

Swap the nutmeg

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (meat, rice, butter, sauce, pepper, egg, parsley):

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

Fit is the average pairing score against meat, rice, butter, sauce, pepper, egg, parsley. 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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