Why it works: Lemon and apple are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 14% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 7,551 recipes. Both carry trans-2-nonenal, which smells cardboard, fatty. The science ↓
Omelet Souffle
Ingredients
Directions
The book gives no oven temperature. The 300°F (150°C) in the steps was added when the recipe was transcribed, as a starting point.
Prepare the batter
Preheat the oven to 300°F (150°C).
In a bowl, cream the egg yolks and powdered sugar until very light and frothy. Add the lemon rind or essence.
In another bowl, whip the egg whites until stiff and dry.
Gently fold the yolk mixture into the whipped egg whites.
Cook and bake
Grease a pan with butter and place it over low heat.
Pour in tablespoonfuls of the mixture to set the bottom.
Add a dusting of coarse sea salt, then transfer the pan to the oven.
Bake until the omelet is swollen and a toothpick comes out clean.
Serve
Carefully shake the omelet onto a hot dish, fold quickly, dust with powdered sugar, and serve immediately. If using, warm the jam or preserves and slip them between the folds.
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.
-
Lemon + appletop 14% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together7,551 recipes
Shared aroma: trans-2-nonenal (cardboard, fatty).
-
Butter + appletop 14% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together8,706 recipes
Shared aroma: trans-2-nonenal (cardboard, fatty).
-
Lemon + buttertop 16% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together41,227 recipes
Shared aroma: 3-hexenal (apple, fruity).
-
Egg + buttertop 17% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together118,967 recipes
Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).
-
Sugar + buttertop 17% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked 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
- Whipped whites form the airy foam structure, while yolks add richness and set during baking.
- Powdered sugar
- Sweetens the batter and helps stabilise the yolk mixture as it is creamed.
- Butter
- Greases the pan so the bottom sets and releases cleanly.
The step that matters
Folding the yolk mixture into the whites. Folding gently keeps the air bubbles in the whipped whites intact. Overmixing deflates the foam, so the omelet will not swell properly in the oven.
Swap the apple
The recipe marks apple as optional. How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (egg, sugar, lemon, butter):
- Vanillafits better
- Orangefits better
- Raspberryfits better
- Applethe original
Fit is the average pairing score against egg, sugar, lemon, 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.
You might also like
Apple Pudding256 recipes
Lemon Cake228 recipes
Lemon Ice147 recipes
Lemon Sherbet103 recipesThe free Flavor Lab newsletter: one surprising pairing a week and the molecular reason it works, in 60 seconds. No spam, unsubscribe anytime.
Prefer an account? Create a free account to save pairings and unlock the full chemistry.