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Omelette Soufflee

A light, airy omelette made by folding beaten egg whites into a flavored yolk mixture and baking until risen.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 5 ingredients
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Why it works: Lemon and butter are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 16% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 41,227 recipes. Both carry 3-hexenal, which smells apple, fruity. The science ↓

Omelette Soufflee

Ingredients

Directions

The book gives no oven temperature. The 400°F (200°C) in the steps was added when the recipe was transcribed, as a starting point.

Prepare the eggs

  1. Separate the egg whites into one bowl and the yolks into another.

  2. Grate a little lemon peel or orange flowers into the yolks.

  3. Beat the yolks well, then add a little sugar and salt.

  4. Beat the egg whites until stiff peaks form.

  5. Gently fold the beaten egg whites into the yolk mixture.

Cook and bake

  1. Melt butter in a skillet over medium heat.

  2. Pour the omelette mixture into the skillet.

  3. Cook until the bottom is firm enough to hold the liquid part.

  4. Transfer the omelette to a serving dish and bake in a preheated oven at 400°F (200°C) until well risen.

  5. Glaze the top and serve immediately.

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 + buttertop 16% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together41,227 recipes

    Shared aroma: 3-hexenal (apple, fruity).

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

    Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).

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

    Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).

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

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

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

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

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

Eggs
Whites whipped to stiff peaks trap air, which expands in the oven to give the soufflé its lift and height.
Egg yolks
Yolks enrich the mixture, adding richness, body and a custard-like texture once cooked.
Sugar
Adds a little sweetness and helps the beaten mixture hold together and brown lightly on top.

The step that matters

Folding the beaten egg whites into the yolks. Whipped whites are full of trapped air that gives the soufflé its rise. Folding gently keeps that air in, while stirring or overmixing deflates the foam and the omelette rises poorly.

Swap the lemon

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

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

Fit is the average pairing score against egg, sugar, 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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