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Chicken Souffle

A savory chicken soufflé folded with cream and beaten egg whites, served with béchamel sauce.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 9 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 base

  1. Pound the shredded chicken with the butter and egg yolk until smooth.

  2. Season with salt and pepper.

  3. Pass through a fine sieve.

Make the soufflé mixture

  1. Whip the cream slightly.

  2. Beat the egg whites until stiff.

  3. Gently fold them into the chicken mixture.

  4. Transfer the mixture to a well-buttered soufflé mold.

  5. Cover with buttered paper.

Steam and serve

  1. Steam gently for 50 to 60 minutes, or fill small molds and steam for about 25 minutes.

  2. Serve with béchamel sauce poured over and garnish with 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 + truffletop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together2,209 recipes

    Shared aroma: nonanal (fat, citrus).

  4. Chicken + truffletop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together756 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2,4-nonadienal (fatty, green).

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

    Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).

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

Cooked chicken
Provides the main body and flavour of the soufflé.
Egg whites
Beaten to stiff peaks, they trap air and give the soufflé its light, risen structure.
Egg yolk
Enriches the mixture and helps bind the pounded chicken into a smooth base.
Butter
Adds richness and moisture to the chicken base and keeps the mold from sticking.
Cream
Adds moisture and richness, keeping the soufflé tender.

The step that matters

Folding in the egg whites. Stiff whites hold the air that makes the soufflé rise. Folding gently keeps that air in; stirring vigorously deflates the mixture and the soufflé will be 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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