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Souffle of Chicken

A baked chicken soufflé made with minced chicken, white sauce, parsley, eggs, and breadcrumbs.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 6 ingredients
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Why it works: Parsley and pepper 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 ↓

Souffle of Chicken

Oven, in the book's wordsA very quick oven

Ingredients

Directions

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

Prepare the chicken

  1. Remove the skin and sinews from the chicken and mince the white meat as finely as possible.

  2. In a saucepan, combine the minced chicken, white sauce, parsley, salt, and pepper. Heat until it boils, then remove from heat and let cool.

Make the soufflé mixture

  1. Beat the egg yolks and mix them into the chicken mixture. Whip the egg whites to stiff peaks and gently fold them into the mixture.

Bake and serve

  1. Butter a mold and coat the bottom and sides with fine breadcrumbs. Place a piece of white paper around the top to allow the souffle to rise.

  2. Bake in a very hot oven at 400°F (200°C) until done. Serve with white sauce poured around it.

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. Parsley + peppertop 2% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together34,122 recipes

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

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

    Shared aroma: piperonal (bitter, coconut).

  3. Chicken + parsleytop 19% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together6,314 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2,4-decadienal (seaweed).

  4. Parsley + eggtop 21% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together18,765 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2,4-decadienal (seaweed).

  5. Chicken + saucetop 23% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together4,513 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).

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 and lift the mixture, while the yolks enrich its body and set.
Chicken
Forms the main body of the soufflé, giving it substance and a savoury flavour.
White sauce
Adds moisture and richness, keeping the minced chicken tender and the mixture smooth.

The step that matters

Folding in the egg whites. Whites must be whipped to stiff peaks and folded in gently. Overmixing deflates the trapped air, so the soufflé will not rise well in the oven.

Swap the parsley

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

  1. Tarragonfits about as well
  2. Parsleythe original
  3. Capersfits about as well
  4. Garlicfits about as well

Fit is the average pairing score against chicken, sauce, pepper, 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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