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Dessert

Omelet Souffle

A light, baked egg dish made by folding beaten egg whites into a sweet yolk mixture.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 4 ingredients
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Why it works: Sugar and lemon are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 18% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 53,532 recipes. Both carry 2-nonenal, which smells fatty, green. The science ↓

Omelet Souffle

Oven, in the book's wordsA moderate oven

Ingredients

Directions

The book says “a moderate oven”. The 350°F (175°C) in the steps is the modern equivalent, not the book's own figure.

Prepare the batter

  1. Beat the egg yolks and powdered sugar together until light and creamy.

  2. Add a few drops of lemon or vanilla extract.

  3. In a separate bowl, beat the egg whites until stiff peaks form.

  4. Gently fold the beaten egg whites into the yolk mixture using a rotary motion.

Bake and serve

  1. Pour the mixture into a buttered baking dish that is 2 to 3 inches deep.

  2. Smooth the top and sprinkle with additional sugar.

  3. Bake in a moderate oven at 350°F (175°C) until it has risen and is a fine yellow color.

  4. Serve immediately, as it will fall if left to sit.

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. Sugar + lemontop 18% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together53,532 recipes

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

  2. Egg + lemontop 19% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together44,316 recipes

    Shared aroma: (e,e)-2,4-decadienal (fatty, deep fried).

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

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

Sugar and lemon barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 53,532 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

Egg whites
Whipped into stiff peaks, they trap air that makes the soufflé rise and turn light.
Egg yolks
Combined with sugar to form a rich, creamy base that gives the dish its flavor and color.
Powdered sugar
Sweetens the base and helps the yolks become light and creamy when beaten.

The step that matters

Fold the beaten egg whites gently. Folding gently keeps the air bubbles in the whipped whites intact. Those bubbles expand in the oven and lift the soufflé. Vigorous stirring deflates the foam, so it rises less and may turn dense.

Swap the lemon

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

  1. Vanillafits better
  2. Raisinfits about as well
  3. Lemonthe original
  4. Datesfits less well

Fit is the average pairing score against egg, 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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