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Omelettes

A baked egg dish with milk, cheese, and optional herbs, cooked in buttered pans.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 6 ingredients
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Why it works: Milk and butter are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 7% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 81,283 recipes. Both carry (z)-4-heptenal, which smells biscuit, cream. The science ↓

Omelettes

Oven, in the book's wordsA hot oven

Ingredients

Directions

The book says “a hot oven”. The 400°F in the steps is the modern equivalent, not the book's own figure.

Prepare the mixture

  1. Beat the eggs until light.

  2. Season with salt and pepper.

  3. Stir in the milk and grated cheese.

Bake

  1. Half fill 8 buttered pate pans with the mixture.

  2. Place the pans in a dripping pan with ½ inch of boiling water.

  3. Bake in a hot oven (400°F / 200°C) until set.

Serve

  1. Turn out onto a hot dish.

  2. Optionally, substitute minced parsley and thyme for cheese.

  3. Pour drawn butter over the omelettes.

  4. Garnish with curled parsley.

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. Milk + buttertop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together81,283 recipes

    Shared aroma: (z)-4-heptenal (biscuit, cream).

  2. Cheese + buttertop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together7,962 recipes

    Shared aroma: delta-dodecalactone (sweet, creamy).

  3. Milk + cheesetop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together4,426 recipes

    Shared aroma: delta-dodecalactone (sweet, creamy).

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

    Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).

  5. Pepper + cheesetop 18% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together7,861 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).

Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs

What each ingredient does

Eggs
Set and firm the omelettes as they bake, giving structure to the custard.
Rich milk
Adds moisture and softness, keeping the omelettes tender rather than rubbery.
Grated cheese
Adds savoury flavour and richness, and browns lightly in the oven.

The step that matters

Bake until set. Egg proteins firm as they heat; pulling the omelettes too early leaves them runny, while overbaking makes them dry and tough.

“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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