Why it works: Lemon and orange match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 10,634 recipes. Both carry 3-hexenal, which smells apple, fruity. The science ↓
Omelette Soufflee
Ingredients
Directions
The book gives no oven temperature. The 350°F (175°C) in the steps was added when the recipe was transcribed, as a starting point.
Prepare the batter
Separate the egg whites from the yolks.
Mix the yolks with arrowroot, sugar, lemon peel, and lemon zest or orange-flower water, then beat the mixture until it forms a batter.
Whip the egg whites until frothy and gently fold them into the batter.
Cook and bake
Heat a suitable omelet pan and add the butter.
Once the butter is boiling, pour the batter into the pan.
Stir carefully until it begins to firm up.
Transfer to a small circular dish and place in a 350°F (175°C) oven for 10 minutes to 1 hour.
Once risen, sprinkle with powdered sugar and serve immediately.
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.
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Lemon + orangetop 1% of all pairsSmell alikestrongCooked together10,634 recipes
Shared aroma: 3-hexenal (apple, fruity).
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Arrowroot + lemontop 4% of all pairsSmell alikestrongCooked together553 recipes
Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).
-
Arrowroot + orangetop 12% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together118 recipes
Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).
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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).
Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs
What each ingredient does
- Eggs
- Whites trap air for lift, and yolks add richness and set the structure as they cook.
- Arrowroot or potato flour
- Starch thickens the batter and helps it hold its airy structure while baking.
- Pounded loaf sugar
- Sweetens the batter and helps stabilise the whipped foam.
- Butter
- Fat for frying the base of the batter, adding richness and browning.
The step that matters
Folding in the whipped egg whites. Overmixing knocks out the air trapped in the whites, so the soufflé falls instead of rising in the oven. Fold gently, keeping the batter light.
Swap the orange
The recipe marks orange as optional. How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (egg, arrowroot, sugar, lemon, butter):
- Vanillafits better
- Limefits about as well
- Coconutfits about as well
- Orangethe original
Fit is the average pairing score against egg, arrowroot, 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.
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