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Omelette Au Fromage Soufflee

A French cheese soufflé omelette made with water, butter, flour, eggs, Parmesan, and spices, baked until golden.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 9 ingredients
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Why it works: Butter and parmesan cheese are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 9% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 4,163 recipes. Both carry guaiacol, which smells smoky, sweet. The science ↓

Omelette Au Fromage Soufflee

Oven, in the book's wordsA moderate oven

Ingredients

Directions

The book says “a moderate oven”. The 350°F (175°C) in the steps is the modern equivalent, not the book's own figure.

Make the base

  1. Combine water, butter, pepper, salt, and mace in a saucepan.

  2. Bring the mixture to a boil.

  3. Remove from heat and stir in flour until a paste forms.

  4. Let the mixture cool, then add egg yolks and Parmesan cheese. Mix well.

Assemble and bake

  1. Fold in the beaten egg whites gently.

  2. Butter a fireproof dish and spread the mixture in it.

  3. Cover with thin shavings of cheese and glaze with beaten egg yolk.

  4. Bake at 350°F (175°C) for 20–25 minutes.

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. Butter + parmesan cheesetop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together4,163 recipes

    Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).

  2. Butter + flourtop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together124,287 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  3. Pepper + parmesan cheesetop 14% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together5,322 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl 2-methylbutyrate (fruity, apple).

  4. Flour + eggtop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together106,462 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  5. Pepper + macetop 16% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together12,257 recipes

    Shared aroma: myristicin (spice, warm).

Butter and flour barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 124,287 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
Egg whites trap air for lift, and yolks add richness and set the custard-like structure.
Flour
Forms a paste with the butter and water that gives the mixture body and holds its shape.
Butter
Adds fat for tenderness and richness in the base.
Parmesan cheese
Adds savoury flavour and, as it bakes, helps the top brown.

The step that matters

Fold in the beaten egg whites gently. Deflating the whites by stirring vigorously releases the air they hold, so the mixture rises less in the oven and the texture turns dense.

Swap the mace

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

  1. Parsleyfits better
  2. Nutmegfits better
  3. Capersfits better
  4. Macethe original

Fit is the average pairing score against butter, pepper, flour, egg, parmesan cheese. 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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