Name: Omelette Soueflee
Ingredients: 4 eggs; 2 tablespoons powdered sugar; 1 teaspoon lemon peel or orange-flower water; butter for greasing; additional powdered sugar for serving

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 ↓

Omelette Soueflee

Ingredients

4 eggs
2 tablespoons powdered sugar
1 teaspoon lemon peel or orange-flower water
butter for greasing
additional powdered sugar for serving

Directions

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

Prepare

Separate the egg whites from the yolks.
Beat the yolks with powdered sugar and lemon peel or orange‑flower water.
Whip the egg whites to a strong froth and mix with the yolk mixture.
Grease a dish with butter and melt it.

Bake and serve

Pour the egg mixture into the dish, cover it, and place it in a very hot oven (400 °F / 200 °C).
Bake for a few minutes, sift powdered sugar over it, and 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.

Lemon + buttertop 16% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together41,227 recipes

Shared aroma: 3-hexenal (apple, fruity).
Egg + buttertop 17% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together118,967 recipes

Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).
Sugar + buttertop 17% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together98,233 recipes

Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).
Sugar + lemontop 18% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked together53,532 recipes

Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).
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 give the soufflé its light, airy structure, while the yolks add richness.
Powdered sugar: Sweetens the custard-like yolk mixture and adds a sweet finish when sifted on top.
Lemon peel or orange-flower water: Adds a fragrant citrus or floral aroma to the yolk mixture.

The step that matters

Whip the egg whites to a strong froth. The whites must be whipped to a stable foam that holds air; if they are underwhipped or deflated when folded in, the soufflé will not rise well. Yolk residue or grease on the whites prevents them from whipping properly, so separate carefully.