Why it works: Lemon and orange match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 10,634 recipes. Both carry 3-hexenal, which smells apple, fruity. The science ↓
Omelette Soufflee
Ingredients
Directions
The book gives no oven temperature. The 350°F (175°C) in the steps was added when the recipe was transcribed, as a starting point.
Prepare the batter
Separate the egg whites from the yolks.
Mix the yolks with arrowroot, sugar, lemon peel, and lemon zest or orange-flower water, then beat the mixture until smooth.
Whip the egg whites until frothy and gently fold them into the yolk mixture.
Cook and bake
Heat the butter in an omelet pan until it begins to boil.
Pour the mixture into the pan and stir gently until it starts to firm up.
Transfer to a small circular dish and place in a 350°F (175°C) oven for 10 to 30 minutes until puffed.
Serve
Sprinkle with powdered sugar and serve immediately.
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.
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Lemon + orangetop 1% of all pairsSmell alikestrongCooked together10,634 recipes
Shared aroma: 3-hexenal (apple, fruity).
-
Arrowroot + lemontop 4% of all pairsSmell alikestrongCooked together553 recipes
Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).
-
Arrowroot + orangetop 12% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together118 recipes
Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).
-
Lemon + buttertop 16% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together41,227 recipes
Shared aroma: 3-hexenal (apple, fruity).
-
Egg + buttertop 17% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together118,967 recipes
Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).
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, and yolks set to give the soufflé its structure.
- Arrowroot or potato flour
- Starch thickens the yolk mixture and helps it hold its puffed shape.
- Pounded loaf sugar
- Sweetens the batter and helps stabilise the yolk mixture while it cooks.
- Butter
- Fat that coats the pan and adds richness and browning to the base.
The step that matters
Folding in the egg whites. Folding gently keeps the air bubbles in the whipped whites. Stirring or deflating them makes the soufflé rise less and turn dense.
Swap the orange
The recipe marks orange as optional. How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (egg, arrowroot, sugar, lemon, butter):
- Vanillafits better
- Limefits about as well
- Coconutfits about as well
- Orangethe original
Fit is the average pairing score against egg, arrowroot, sugar, lemon, 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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