Name: Vegetable Souffle or Baked Omelet
Ingredients: ½ cup fat; ½ cup flour; 1 cup liquid (milk, cream, meat stock, or vegetable cooking water); 1 cup thick vegetable pulp (mashed cooked vegetables); 3 eggs; Salt to taste; Pepper to taste; A few drops onion juice or a small piece of onion boiled with the vegetables; Optional: finely chopped parsley, chives, ham, or ½ teaspoon curry powder

Why it works: Pepper and parsley match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 2% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 34,122 recipes. Both carry 4'-methylacetophenone, which smells bitter almond. The science ↓

Vegetable Souffle or Baked Omelet

Oven, in the book's wordsA slow oven

Ingredients

½ cup fat
½ cup flour
1 cup liquid (milk, cream, meat stock, or vegetable cooking water)
1 cup thick vegetable pulp (mashed cooked vegetables)
3 eggs
Salt to taste
Pepper to taste
A few drops onion juice or a small piece of onion boiled with the vegetables
Optional: finely chopped parsley, chives, ham, or ½ teaspoon curry powder

Directions

The book says “a slow oven”. The 300°F (150°C) in the steps is the modern equivalent, not the book's own figure.

Prepare

Preheat the oven to 300°F (150°C).

Make the sauce

In a saucepan, make a thick sauce by combining the fat, flour, and liquid over medium heat.

Combine and bake

In a bowl, mix the vegetable pulp with the seasoning and sauce.
In a separate bowl, beat the egg yolks and then fold them into the vegetable mixture.
In another bowl, beat the egg whites until stiff peaks form, then gently fold them into the mixture.
Pour the mixture into a buttered baking dish and bake until firm.

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.

Pepper + parsleytop 2% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together34,122 recipes

Shared aroma: 4'-methylacetophenone (bitter almond).
Onion + parsleytop 9% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together25,843 recipes

Shared aroma: 2,4-decadienal (seaweed).
Pepper + oniontop 11% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together68,474 recipes

Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).
Flour + parsleytop 12% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together16,675 recipes

Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
Flour + milktop 14% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked together78,219 recipes

Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

Flour and milk barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 78,219 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

Eggs: Yolks enrich and bind the mixture, while whipped whites lift it to give a light, airy texture.
Flour: Thickens the fat and liquid into a sauce that gives the omelet body and structure.
Vegetable pulp: Supplies the bulk, moisture, and flavor of the omelet.
Fat: Combines with flour to form the roux that thickens the sauce and adds richness.

The step that matters

Folding in the egg whites. Whites must be beaten to stiff peaks and folded in gently; overmixing deflates the air bubbles, which are what make the baked omelet rise and stay light.

Swap the parsley

The recipe marks parsley as optional. How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (flour, milk, egg, pepper, onion):

Turmericfits about as well
Parsleythe original
Nutmegfits about as well
Cardamomfits about as well

Fit is the average pairing score against flour, milk, egg, pepper, onion. Candidates are from the same food group and used in at least 100 recipes.

“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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Vegetable Souffle or Baked Omelet