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Chicken Souffle

A steamed chicken soufflé folded with egg whites and served with béchamel sauce.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 7 ingredients
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Why it works: Butter and cream are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 8% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 41,516 recipes. Both carry delta-dodecalactone, which smells sweet, creamy. The science ↓

Chicken Souffle

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the chicken

  1. Finely shred the chicken or pass it through a mincing machine.

  2. Pound the chicken with the butter and egg yolk, then season with salt and pepper.

  3. Rub the mixture through a fine wire sieve.

Lighten and mould

  1. Whip the cream slightly and whisk the egg white until stiff, then fold them into the chicken puree.

  2. If the mixture is too stiff, add a little milk or white sauce.

  3. Place the mixture in a well-greased soufflé or Charlotte mold, cover with greased paper, and steam gently for about 1 hour.

  4. Alternatively, fill several small dariole molds and steam for about 25 minutes.

Serve

  1. Serve with béchamel sauce poured over and garnish with finely chopped truffle if desired.

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 + creamtop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together41,516 recipes

    Shared aroma: delta-dodecalactone (sweet, creamy).

  2. Cream + saucetop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together4,787 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).

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

    Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).

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

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

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

    Shared aroma: piperonal (bitter, coconut).

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

Chicken
Forms the main body of the soufflé, giving it flavour and a smooth puree base.
Egg white
Whisked until stiff, it traps air and gives the soufflé its light, risen structure.
Egg
Its yolk enriches the puree and helps bind the chicken into a cohesive mixture.
Butter
Adds fat for richness and a smoother, more tender texture.
Cream
Adds moisture and richness, lightening the texture when folded in.

The step that matters

Folding in the whisked egg white. Egg white must be whisked until stiff and folded gently so the air bubbles it holds are not knocked out. Those bubbles are what make the soufflé rise and stay light during steaming.

“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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