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Omelette Souffle

A light, airy omelette soufflé made with beaten egg whites, yolk mixture, orange juice, and sugar.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 5 ingredients
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Why it works: Egg and butter are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 17% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 118,967 recipes. Both carry decanal, which smells soap, orange peel. The science ↓

Omelette Souffle

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. Separate the egg whites from the yolks.

  2. Butter a silver or tinned copper dish.

Make the mixture

  1. In a small bowl, combine 4 yolks, sugar, and orange juice; beat for 5 minutes until a soft paste forms.

  2. In a larger bowl, beat the 6 egg whites until firm.

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

  4. Pile the mixture high in the dish.

Cook and serve

  1. Cook over low heat for 6-8 minutes.

  2. Glaze with sugar until golden.

  3. Serve immediately for best texture and appearance.

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

    Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).

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

    Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).

  3. Sugar + orangetop 20% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together19,212 recipes

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

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

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

  5. Orange + buttertop 23% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together7,301 recipes

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

Sugar and orange barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 19,212 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 to give the omelette its light, risen structure, while yolks add richness and body.
Sugar
Sweetens the yolk paste and caramelizes on the surface to create a golden glaze.
Orange juice
Adds a bright citrus aroma and a touch of acidity that balances the sweetness.

The step that matters

Fold the yolk mixture gently into the whites. Whipped egg whites are a foam held together by trapped air. Vigorous stirring knocks that air out, so the mixture will not rise properly in the dish.

Swap the orange

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

  1. Vanillafits better
  2. Lemonfits better
  3. Raisinfits better
  4. Orangethe original

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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