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Dessert

Plain Omelet ‘soufflee’

A sweet soufflé made from beaten eggs, powdered sugar, and optional flavorings, baked until light and airy.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 6 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 ↓

Plain Omelet ‘soufflee’

Oven, in the book's wordsA slack oven

Ingredients

Directions

The book says “a slack oven”. The 300°F (150°C) in the steps is the modern equivalent, not the book's own figure.

Prepare the eggs

  1. Separate the yolks and whites of the eggs into two bowls.

  2. In the bowl with the yolks, mix in 4 tablespoons of powdered sugar and beat for 10 minutes until frothy.

  3. Whip the egg whites until stiff, then gradually add 4 tablespoons of sugar and your choice of flavoring.

Fold and bake

  1. Gently fold the egg yolk mixture into the whipped egg whites.

  2. Pour the mixture into a buttered baking dish and smooth the top.

  3. Cut through the mixture with a knife to create two sections.

  4. Sprinkle lightly with powdered sugar and bake in a 300°F (150°C) oven for 12-14 minutes.

Serve

  1. Once out of the oven, sift fine sugar over the top and serve.

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

    Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).

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

    Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).

  4. Sugar + buttertop 17% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together98,233 recipes

    Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).

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

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

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

Eggs
Whites trap air for lift, while yolks add richness and set the structure as the soufflé bakes.
Sugar
Stabilizes the whipped egg whites and adds sweetness to the soufflé.
Powdered sugar
Sweetens the yolk mixture and dissolves easily into the batter for a smooth texture.

The step that matters

Gently fold the yolk mixture into the whites. Folding gently preserves the air bubbles in the whipped whites. Stirring or deflating them causes the soufflé to lose lift and turn dense.

“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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