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Omelet Souffle, American Style

A light, airy omelet souffle made with egg whites, yolks, sugar, and vanilla, baked until golden.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 6 ingredients
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Why it works: Sugar and vanilla are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 8% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 35,032 recipes. Both carry beta-damascenone, which smells apple, rose. The science ↓

Omelet Souffle, American Style

Ingredients

Directions

The book gives no oven temperature. The 400°F (200°C) in the steps was added when the recipe was transcribed, as a starting point.

Prepare the meringue and yolks

  1. Beat the egg whites to a meringue, adding part of the sugar.

  2. Stir the egg yolks with the remaining sugar and add the vanilla extract.

  3. Reserve some meringue for decoration.

Shape and bake

  1. Gently mix the yolk mixture with the remaining meringue.

  2. Grease an oval omelet dish with butter and pile the mixture in an omelet shape.

  3. Make a dent along the top for even baking.

  4. Decorate with reserved meringue and dust with sugar.

  5. Bake in a preheated oven at 400°F (200°C) for 12 to 14 minutes.

  6. Serve immediately.

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 + vanillatop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together35,032 recipes

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

  2. Vanilla + buttertop 14% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together20,050 recipes

    Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).

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

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

Sugar and vanilla barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 35,032 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 a meringue that traps air and gives the souffle its light, risen structure.
Egg yolks
Add richness and flavor to the base and help the mixture set as it bakes.
Sugar
Stabilizes the meringue and sweetens the custard, and gives the top a light browning.

The step that matters

Gently mix the yolk mixture with the remaining meringue. Folding rather than stirring keeps the air bubbles in the whipped egg whites. Overmixing deflates the meringue, so the souffle will not rise well in the oven.

“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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