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Omelette Souffle

A light, airy omelette flavored with sugar and optional aromatics, baked to a golden dome and dusted with sugar.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 9 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 ↓

Omelette Souffle

Oven, in the book's wordsA brisk oven

Ingredients

Directions

The book says “a brisk oven”. The 400°F (200°C) in the steps is the modern equivalent, not the book's own figure.

Prepare the batter

  1. Beat the yolks of 6 eggs with 4 tablespoons of sugar and 1 tablespoon of flavoring.

  2. Whisk the 6 egg whites until frothy.

  3. Gently mix the frothy whites with the yolk mixture.

Cook the omelette

  1. Melt 4 ounces of butter in an omelette pan.

  2. Add the batter immediately to the pan.

  3. Cook until one side is set.

  4. Carefully turn the omelette into a well-buttered dish, forming a dome.

Bake and serve

  1. Dust with sifted sugar.

  2. Bake in a brisk oven at 400°F (200°C) for 5-10 minutes.

  3. Serve immediately when it rises.

  4. Garnish with fruit, jam, jelly, or marmalade.

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. Rose + lemontop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together1,174 recipes

    Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).

  3. Rose + vanillatop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together456 recipes

    Shared aroma: beta-damascenone (apple, rose).

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

    Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).

  5. Lemon + vanillatop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together5,961 recipes

    Shared aroma: eucalyptol (eucalyptus, herbal).

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 custard-like body.
Sugar
Sweetens the batter and helps stabilise the whipped egg whites.
Butter
Greases the pan and dish and adds richness and browning to the base.

The step that matters

Serve immediately when it rises. The soufflé's height comes from air trapped in the whites and expanded by heat. As it cools, the air contracts and the structure falls, so it should go to the table right away.

Swap the lemon

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

  1. Raspberryfits better
  2. Figfits better
  3. Peachfits better
  4. Lemonthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against egg, sugar, rose, vanilla, 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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