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SOUFFLE, POULETS (a la Creme)
This dish is to be made of the remnants of roasted chickens; take off the white flesh, mince it very small, and pound it in a mortar with a little bchamel, a good lump of fresh butter, and salt and pepper; with this mix the yolks of four eggs. Strain the whole through a tamis, or a hair sieve; then beat the whites of five eggs till made into a single body; mix these with the former preparation, and put the whole in the dish to rise, or in a croustade that has been raised like the crust of a pate chaud (hot pasty). It will be done in a quarter of an hour or twenty minutes, according to the quantity. It is to be observed, that if the oven is too hot, the outside of the dish will be burnt, although the inside is not done enough. This, therefore, must be carefully attended to.
A leftover-chicken soufflé from the era before the food processor, when the same result took a marble mortar and a horsehair sieve. The method is sound; only the equipment and the oven need translating.
- Quantities are not givenQuantities are not given. The recipe simply says to use the white flesh of roasted chickens — the breast meat of one bird is roughly 10 to 12 oz. With four yolks and five whites, about 12 oz of meat and 1/2 to 3/4 cup of béchamel gives a base stiff enough to hold the foam.
- BéchamelA thick white sauce: 2 tbsp butter, 2 tbsp flour, 1 cup milk, cooked until it coats a spoon heavily. Make it stiffer than you would for a sauce, since the egg whites will loosen everything.
- Mortar and tamisPounding then pushing through a hair sieve was the only way to get a smooth purée. A food processor does the pounding; still pass the purée through a fine sieve, as chicken retains fibres that no blade fully breaks down.
- "Till made into a single body"Beat the whites to soft, glossy peaks that just hold — not stiff and dry. Fold a third in to slacken the base, then fold the rest through gently.
- Oven temperatureThe recipe's whole warning is about heat. Bake at 350–375F; hotter and the crust sets and colours before the centre coagulates, which is exactly the fault described.
- TimingFifteen to twenty minutes suits a single dish of about 1 1/2 quarts. Individual ramekins take 12 to 14 minutes. It is done when the top is set and the centre wobbles as one mass rather than sloshing.
- CroustadeThe alternative vessel is a hollowed case of raised pastry, made like the crust of a hot pie and often treated more as a container than as the point of the dish. A buttered soufflé dish with a collar of parchment does the same job with less work.
- SeasoningCooked chicken and béchamel are both bland, and the aerated texture mutes salt further. Season the base assertively — it should taste slightly over-salted before the whites go in — and add nutmeg or a little grated Parmesan if you want more definition.
- ServingServes four as a light main course, six as an entrée. Bring it straight from oven to table; it begins to sink within a few minutes.
The name gives away its lineage: poulets à la crème in soufflé form, a dish of the professional kitchen adapted for the household table. The soufflé as a distinct preparation is generally associated with French cookery of the late eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries. The instruction to pound in a mortar and pass through a tamis marks the recipe as pre-mechanical, and the closing lecture on oven heat marks it as pre-thermostat: a cook judged the heat of a range by hand and experience, and the warning about a burnt outside over a raw centre is the voice of someone who had seen it happen.