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Savoury Omelet Souffle

A savoury omelet souffle made by folding whipped egg whites into a yolk mixture and cooking until browned.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 5 ingredients
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Why it works: Parsley and pepper match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 2% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 34,122 recipes. Both carry 4'-methylacetophenone, which smells bitter almond. The science ↓

Savoury Omelet Souffle

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the eggs

  1. Separate the yolks and whites of the eggs, removing any specks.

  2. Stir the milk, parsley, salt, and pepper into the yolks.

  3. Whip the egg whites until stiff peaks form.

  4. Gently fold the whipped whites into the yolk mixture until uniform in color.

Cook the omelet

  1. Rub the omelet pan with a piece of onion.

  2. Add the butter.

  3. Heat until just before browning.

  4. Pour the egg mixture into the pan.

  5. Stir slightly until it begins to set at the edges.

  6. Stir the middle gently until it starts to set.

  7. Cook until the underside is browned.

  8. Use a knife to keep it loose from the pan.

Finish and serve

  1. Brown the top under a gas grill or in front of a clear fire.

  2. Slide a knife under the omelet.

  3. Fold it in half.

  4. Transfer to a hot dish.

  5. 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. Parsley + peppertop 2% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together34,122 recipes

    Shared aroma: 4'-methylacetophenone (bitter almond).

  2. Milk + buttertop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together81,283 recipes

    Shared aroma: (z)-4-heptenal (biscuit, cream).

  3. Parsley + buttertop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together28,563 recipes

    Shared aroma: trans-2-hexenal (green, leafy).

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

    Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).

  5. Egg + milktop 18% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together88,785 recipes

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

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 provide richness and set the omelet.
Butter
Adds fat for flavor and helps keep the omelet from sticking to the pan.
Milk
Adds moisture that turns to steam, keeping the omelet tender.

The step that matters

Fold the whipped whites into the yolks. Folding gently preserves the air bubbles in the whites; stirring or overmixing deflates them, leaving a dense, flat omelet instead of a light, soufflé-like one.

Swap the parsley

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

  1. Nutmegfits about as well
  2. Parsleythe original
  3. Cinnamonfits about as well
  4. Tarragonfits less well

Fit is the average pairing score against egg, milk, pepper, 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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