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Omelette Souffle

A light, baked omelette made with beaten egg whites folded into a milk and corn starch mixture.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
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Why it works: Milk and butter are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 7% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 81,283 recipes. Both carry (z)-4-heptenal, which smells biscuit, cream. The science ↓

Omelette Souffle

Oven, in the book's wordsA quick oven

Ingredients

Directions

The book says “a quick oven”. The 400°F (200°C) in the steps is the modern equivalent, not the book's own figure.

Prepare

  1. Preheat the oven to 400°F (200°C).

  2. Separate the egg whites and yolks, beating them separately until very light.

  3. In a saucepan, heat the milk with the butter until melted.

  4. Mix in the corn starch until smooth.

Make and bake

  1. Combine the corn starch mixture with the yolks and add salt to taste.

  2. Gently fold in the beaten egg whites.

  3. Pour the mixture into a buttered pudding dish and bake for 15 minutes.

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. Milk + buttertop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together81,283 recipes

    Shared aroma: (z)-4-heptenal (biscuit, cream).

  2. Milk + corntop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together6,955 recipes

    Shared aroma: hexanal (green, grassy).

  3. Corn + buttertop 14% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together7,345 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2,3-pentanedione (butter, sweet).

  4. Egg + buttertop 17% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together118,967 recipes

    Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).

  5. Egg + milktop 18% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together88,785 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).

Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs

What each ingredient does

Eggs
Whipped whites trap air for the soufflé's light, risen structure, while yolks enrich the custard.
Milk
Forms the liquid base of the custard, providing moisture and a soft texture.
Corn starch
Thickens the milk mixture so it can hold the folded egg whites without collapsing.
Butter
Adds richness and fat, giving a smoother, more tender texture to the base.

The step that matters

Gently fold in the beaten egg whites.. Egg white foam holds air that makes the soufflé rise. Stirring or deflating it too vigorously knocks out air, so the result bakes flat and 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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