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Sweet Omelet Souffle

A sweet, lightly baked omelet soufflé made with eggs, milk, sugar, and flavorings.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 8 ingredients
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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 ↓

Sweet Omelet 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 the custard base

  1. Beat the egg whites separately.

  2. Beat the egg yolks separately.

  3. Combine the milk, sugar, and salt in a saucepan.

  4. Place the saucepan in boiling water.

  5. Mix the corn starch with a little cold milk.

  6. Stir the mixture into the boiling mixture for 3 minutes.

  7. Remove from heat.

  8. Add the butter and flavoring.

  9. Stir in the beaten yolks when the mixture is not scalding hot.

Bake and serve

  1. Beat the egg whites with 1 tablespoon of sugar until stiff.

  2. Fold the stiff egg whites into the mixture.

  3. Add the baking powder.

  4. Pour into a well-buttered pan.

  5. Bake in a preheated oven at 400°F (200°C) until light yellow brown.

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 + lemontop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,927 recipes

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

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

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

  5. Milk + lemontop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together19,053 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 and yolks provide the airy structure and lift that make the souffle rise.
Corn starch
Thickens the hot milk into a stable custard that holds the beaten eggs.
Milk
Forms the liquid base of the custard and adds moisture and tenderness.
Sugar
Sweetens the dish and helps stabilise the beaten egg whites.
Baking powder
Releases gas in the oven to give the souffle extra rise and lightness.
Butter
Adds richness and a soft texture to the custard base.

The step that matters

Folding the stiff egg whites into the mixture. Folding gently keeps the air trapped in the whites. Stirring or deflating them makes the souffle dense and stops it rising well in the oven.

Swap the lemon

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

  1. Vanillafits better
  2. Coconutfits better
  3. Figfits better
  4. Lemonthe original

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