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Omelet Souffle

A light, airy omelet soufflé made with egg whites, yolks, sugar, flour, jam, and vanilla.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 7 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

Oven, in the book's wordsA quick oven

Ingredients

Directions

The book says “a quick oven”. The 400°F (200°C) in the steps is the modern equivalent, not the book's own figure.

Prepare

  1. Preheat the oven to 400°F (200°C).

  2. In a bowl, beat the egg yolks and sugar together until creamy.

  3. Stir in the flour and vanilla essence.

  4. Gently fold in the stiffly whisked egg whites.

Assemble and bake

  1. Pour half the mixture into a well-buttered soufflé dish.

  2. Add the jam, then top with the remaining mixture.

  3. Bake for about 15 minutes.

Serve

  1. Turn onto a paper, dust with vanilla sugar, and serve in the baking dish.

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. Flour + buttertop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together124,287 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  3. Flour + vanillatop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together19,241 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

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

    Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).

  5. Sugar + flourtop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together92,116 recipes

    Shared aroma: phenylacetaldehyde (hawthorne, honey).

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
Whisked and folded in to trap air, giving the soufflé its light, risen structure.
Egg yolks
Enrich the batter with fat and richness, and help set the custard-like texture as it bakes.
Flour
Provides structure so the batter holds its shape once the egg mixture sets.
Castor sugar
Sweetens the batter and helps stabilise the yolks when beaten to a creamy texture.
Jam
Adds sweetness and fruity flavour in the centre of the soufflé.

The step that matters

Folding in the egg whites. Egg whites hold air only when whisked stiffly and folded gently. Overmixing or stirring vigorously deflates the foam, so the soufflé will rise poorly and turn dense.

Swap the vanilla

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

  1. Raisinfits better
  2. Vanillathe original
  3. Figfits less well
  4. Lemonfits less well

Fit is the average pairing score against egg, sugar, flour, 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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