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Petits Souffles 'de Foies De Volaille

Small souffles made from chicken livers, foie gras, béchamel, and eggs, baked until golden.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 9 ingredients
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Why it works: Butter and sauce are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 15% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 15,338 recipes. Both carry ethanol, which smells alcoholic, ethereal. The science ↓

Petits Souffles 'de Foies De Volaille

Oven, in the book's wordsA sharp oven

Ingredients

Directions

The book says “a sharp oven”. The 350°F (175°C) in the steps is the modern equivalent, not the book's own figure.

Prepare the livers

  1. Clean, wash, and dry the chicken livers.

  2. Slice the livers and fry them in butter over medium heat.

  3. Add salt and pepper to the fried livers.

  4. Pound the seasoned livers with foie gras in a mortar.

  5. Pass the mixture through a fine sieve.

Make the batter

  1. Mix the sieved mixture with béchamel sauce and egg yolks.

  2. Whisk the egg whites to stiff peaks.

  3. Gently fold the stiff egg whites into the mixture.

Fill and bake

  1. Butter the souffle cases.

  2. Fill the cases three-quarters full with the mixture.

  3. Place the cases on a baking sheet and bake in a preheated oven at 350 °F (175 °C) for about 15 minutes.

Finish

  1. Sprinkle the baked souffles with fresh breadcrumbs and oiled butter.

  2. Brown the surface in a hot oven or under a broiler.

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 + saucetop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together15,338 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).

  2. Chicken + buttertop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together13,902 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-furfurylthiol (coffee, roasted).

  3. Chicken + peppertop 16% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together19,958 recipes

    Shared aroma: piperonal (bitter, coconut).

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

    Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).

  5. Chicken + livertop 18% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together383 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).

Butter and sauce barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 15,338 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

Egg whites
Whisked into stiff peaks, they trap air that makes the soufflé rise and turn light.
Egg yolks
They enrich the mixture and help bind it to the whipped whites for a stable set.
Béchamel sauce
Its starch gives the base body so the soufflé holds its structure around the air.
Chicken livers
They provide the main flavor and a smooth, rich texture once puréed and sieved.
Foie gras
Its high fat content adds silkiness and richness to the liver purée.
Butter
It adds fat and flavor and helps the surface brown when finished.

The step that matters

Folding in the egg whites. Stir gently, using a folding motion, so the whipped whites keep their air. Overmixing deflates the foam, and the soufflé will rise less and turn 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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