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Souffle, Omelet

A light omelet soufflé folded over apricot jam and dusted with sugar.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 7 ingredients
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Why it works: Lemon and apricot are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 13% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 1,098 recipes. Both carry 2-nonenal, which smells fatty, green. The science ↓

Souffle, Omelet

Oven, in the book's wordsA very hot oven

Ingredients

Directions

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

Prepare the eggs

  1. Separate the eggs, placing the whites in one bowl and the yolks in another.

  2. Beat the yolks well, then add a little sugar and salt.

  3. Beat the egg whites until stiff peaks form.

  4. Gently fold the beaten egg whites into the yolk mixture.

Cook and serve

  1. Melt butter in an omelet pan over low heat.

  2. Pour the egg mixture into the pan and cook for 2 minutes until the underside is set.

  3. Transfer the pan to a preheated oven at 400°F (200°C) for about 3 minutes until firm and lightly colored.

  4. Loosen the edges with a knife and invert the omelet onto a hot dish.

  5. Spread warm apricot jam on top, fold the omelet in half, sprinkle with white sugar, and serve immediately.

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. Lemon + apricottop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,098 recipes

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

  2. Butter + apricottop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,458 recipes

    Shared aroma: delta-dodecalactone (sweet, creamy).

  3. Lemon + buttertop 16% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together41,227 recipes

    Shared aroma: 3-hexenal (apple, fruity).

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

    Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).

  5. Sugar + buttertop 17% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together98,233 recipes

    Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).

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

What each ingredient does

Eggs
Whites trapped as foam give the omelet its light, airy structure, while yolks enrich flavor and color.
Butter
Fats coat the pan so the omelet releases cleanly and adds richness to the surface.
Apricot jam
Adds sweetness and fruity flavor to the finished omelet.

The step that matters

Folding the beaten egg whites into the yolks. Stirring instead of gently folding knocks out the air trapped in the whites, so the omelet deflates and turns dense rather than soufflé-like.

Swap the apricot

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (egg, lemon, sugar, butter):

  1. Vanillafits better
  2. Orangefits better
  3. Raspberryfits better
  4. Apricotthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against egg, lemon, sugar, butter. 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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