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An Omelette Souffle

A light, airy omelette soufflé made with eggs, powdered sugar, and orange‑flower water or lemon juice.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 4 ingredients
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Why it works: Egg and butter are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 17% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 118,967 recipes. Both carry decanal, which smells soap, orange peel. The science ↓

An Omelette Souffle

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the eggs

  1. Separate the egg whites from the yolks and strain them.

  2. Beat the yolks until thick and smooth, and the whites until stiff and frothy.

Make the mixture

  1. Gradually add the powdered sugar and orange-flower water or lemon juice to the yolk mixture.

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

  3. Butter a deep pan and pour the mixture into it.

Bake and serve

  1. Bake in a preheated Dutch oven with coals underneath and on top for 5 minutes.

  2. Serve immediately to prevent it from falling.

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

    Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).

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

    Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).

  3. Sugar + orangetop 20% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together19,212 recipes

    Shared aroma: beta-damascenone (apple, rose).

  4. Egg + sugartop 21% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together122,807 recipes

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

  5. Orange + buttertop 23% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together7,301 recipes

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

Sugar and orange barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 19,212 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
Whipped whites trap air for lift, while the yolks add richness and structure.
Powdered sugar
Adds sweetness and dissolves smoothly into the yolks, softening the texture.
Orange-flower water or lemon juice
Adds aroma or brightness that balances the sweetness of the sugar.

The step that matters

Fold the whites in gently. The whipped whites hold the air that makes the omelette soufflé rise. Vigorous stirring deflates the foam, so the dish bakes flat and dense instead of light.

Swap the orange

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

  1. Vanillafits better
  2. Lemonfits better
  3. Raisinfits better
  4. Orangethe original

Fit is the average pairing score against egg, 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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