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Chicken Souffle

A steamed chicken soufflé made with shredded chicken, butter, egg, cream, and 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 meat grinder.

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

  3. Rub the mixture through a fine sieve.

Make the soufflé

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

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

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

  4. Alternatively, fill 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
Provides the main body and flavour, forming the soufflé's structure once puréed and set.
Eggs
Whites trap air for lightness, and the yolk helps bind the mixture as it sets.
Butter
Adds richness and moisture, keeping the chicken purée tender after steaming.
Cream
Adds moisture and lightness, softening the purée when folded in.

The step that matters

Folding in the stiffly whisked egg white. Egg white traps air that expands during steaming and gives the soufflé its lift. Overmixing or stirring vigorously deflates the foam, leaving a dense result.

“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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