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Chicken Souffle
2 tablespoons shortening 2 tablespoons flour 1 teaspoon salt Few grains cayenne 2 cups scalded milk 1 teaspoon chopped parsley 1/2 cup bread crumbs 2 cups cold chicken chopped fine 4 egg yolks well beaten 4 egg whites beaten stiff Melt butter, add flour and seasonings, cook; add the milk gradually, cooking to a smooth cream, add to this the parsley, bread crumbs, and the chicken. Combine with beaten yolks; fold in the whites beaten stiff. Turn into a buttered baking dish, bake in a slow oven 35 minutes. Serves 6.
A sturdy, crumb-thickened soufflé of the kind built to use up leftover roast fowl. It is far more forgiving than a classic cheese soufflé, but the oven temperature and the folding still decide whether it rises.
- Oven temperatureA slow oven here means 300-325F. The low heat is deliberate: it sets the egg gently and keeps the soufflé from cracking and collapsing before the centre is cooked. Check at 35 minutes; the top should be browned and the centre barely firm.
- Shortening or butterThe list calls for shortening and the method says butter. Use butter for the roux; the flavour carries the whole dish, and there is nothing here that needs the higher melting point of a solid vegetable fat.
- The hingeLet the chicken-and-sauce base cool to warm before the yolks go in, and to little more than lukewarm before the whites. A hot base deflates the whites on contact and you get a dense loaf rather than a soufflé. Fold in thirds with a wide spatula and stop while a few streaks remain.
- Scalded milkScalding was standard in this period, variously explained as guarding against souring in unpasteurised milk and as a way to speed the sauce. With modern milk it is optional, though warm milk still blends into the roux more smoothly.
- The chickenTwo cups of finely chopped cooked chicken is roughly 10-12 oz of picked meat. Chop rather than shred: long strands weigh down the batter. Dark meat gives more flavour than breast.
- Bread crumbsThe recipe does not say which sort. Soft crumbs from the interior of a stale loaf work better here than the dry sandy kind sold for coating: they absorb moisture from the chicken and give the soufflé body, where dried crumbs tend to make it heavier and slightly gritty.
- Dish and yieldA buttered 2-quart straight-sided dish suits this. Six servings as written, which is a main-course portion; with a green salad and bread it eats as a light supper.
- ServingTake it straight from oven to table. It will sink within a few minutes, which is expected of a crumb-based soufflé and does not affect the eating.