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Omelet Souffle

A light, airy omelet soufflé made with egg whites, yolks, lemon zest, sugar, and lemon juice.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 6 ingredients
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Why it works: Lemon and sugar are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 18% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 53,532 recipes. Both carry 2-nonenal, which smells fatty, green. The science ↓

Omelet Souffle

Oven, in the book's wordsA hot oven

Ingredients

Directions

The book says “a hot 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).

Make the mixture

  1. Add a pinch of salt to the egg whites and whip them to stiff peaks.

  2. Beat the egg yolks and sugar in a separate bowl until creamy.

  3. Stir in the lemon juice.

  4. Gently fold in the whipped egg whites.

Bake and serve

  1. Pour the mixture into an oiled pie dish.

  2. Sprinkle the mixture with sugar.

  3. Bake for 8 to 10 minutes.

  4. Serve immediately 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. Lemon + sugartop 18% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together53,532 recipes

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

  2. Egg + lemontop 19% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together44,316 recipes

    Shared aroma: (e,e)-2,4-decadienal (fatty, deep fried).

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

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

Lemon and sugar 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

Egg whites
Whipped to stiff peaks, they trap air and give the omelet its light, risen structure.
Egg yolks
Beaten with sugar, they add richness and set to a tender, custardy texture.
Castor sugar
Sweetens the mixture and helps the yolks become creamy when beaten.
Lemon juice
Adds acidity that brightens the flavor and balances the sweetness.

The step that matters

Gently fold in the whipped egg whites. Folding rather than stirring keeps the air bubbles in the whipped whites intact. Those bubbles are what make the omelet rise, so deflating them leaves a dense result.

Swap the lemon

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

  1. Vanillafits better
  2. Raisinfits about as well
  3. Lemonthe original
  4. Datesfits less well

Fit is the average pairing score against egg, sugar. 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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