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Dessert

Omelet Souffle

A light, baked egg dish made from beaten egg whites folded into a yolk, sugar, and lemon mixture.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 6 ingredients
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Why it works: Butter and brandy are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 15% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 5,127 recipes. Both carry ethyl octanoate, which smells fruity, wine. The science ↓

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

  1. Preheat the oven to 400°F (200°C).

  2. Butter a baking dish.

Make the mixture

  1. Beat the egg whites to a stiff froth.

  2. In a separate bowl, mix the yolks with the sugar, lemon juice, and lemon rind.

  3. Gently fold the egg whites into the yolk mixture.

Bake and serve

  1. Pour the mixture into the dish.

  2. Bake for 10 to 15 minutes until set.

  3. Serve with brandy or wine sauce.

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. Butter + brandytop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together5,127 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl octanoate (fruity, wine).

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

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

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

    Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).

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

    Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).

  5. Egg + brandytop 17% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together7,340 recipes

    Shared aroma: acetoin (butter, cream).

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

What each ingredient does

Egg whites
Whipped into a foam that traps air, lifting the dish as it bakes and sets.
Sugar
Adds sweetness and helps steady the whipped egg foam.
Lemon juice
Adds acidity that brightens the flavour and helps stabilise the egg foam.
Lemon rind
Adds fragrant lemon aroma without extra liquid.

The step that matters

Folding the egg whites into the yolk mixture. Folding gently keeps the air trapped in the whipped whites. Stirring or deflating them makes the omelette dense and flat instead of light and puffed.

Swap the lemon

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

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

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