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Omelet Souffle

A light, airy omelette made with whipped egg whites, lemon rind, and butter, finished with powdered sugar.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 5 ingredients
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Why it works: Lemon and butter are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 16% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 41,227 recipes. Both carry 3-hexenal, which smells apple, fruity. The science ↓

Omelet Souffle

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. Separate the egg whites from the yolks.

  2. Mix the yolks with the powdered sugar and chopped lemon rind.

  3. Whip the egg whites until stiff and fold them into the yolk mixture.

Cook

  1. Melt the butter in a frying pan over medium heat.

  2. Pour the egg mixture into the pan and stir to combine with the butter.

  3. Strain the mixture into a buttered dish and place it on hot ashes.

Finish

  1. Sprinkle powdered sugar on top and carefully brown the surface with a salamander.

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

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

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

    Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).

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

    Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).

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

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

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

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

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

Eggs
Whipped whites trap air for lift, while yolks add richness and a custard-like set.
Butter
Adds fat and richness, and helps keep the mixture from sticking to the pan.
Powdered sugar
Sweetens the dish and browns on the surface under direct heat.
Lemon rind
Adds bright citrus aroma and flavour to the yolk mixture.

The step that matters

Folding the whipped whites into the yolks. Whites hold air only while whipped, so folding gently rather than stirring keeps the mixture light. Overmixing deflates the foam, and the dish loses its rise and soufflé texture.

Swap the lemon

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

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

Fit is the average pairing score against egg, sugar, 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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