Name: Omelette Au Fromage
Ingredients: 30 grams Parmesan cheese, grated; 50 grams Gruyère cheese, diced; 4 large eggs; ¼ teaspoon salt; ¼ teaspoon black pepper

Why it works: Parmesan cheese and cheese match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 3% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 1,041 recipes. Both carry ethyl 2-methylbutyrate, which smells fruity, apple. The science ↓

Omelette Au Fromage

Ingredients

Directions

Make the omelette

In a bowl, beat the eggs and mix in the grated Parmesan cheese, salt, and pepper.
Heat a non-stick skillet over medium heat and add the egg mixture.
Cook until the edges start to set, then sprinkle the diced Gruyère cheese on one half.
Fold the omelette in half and cook for another minute until the cheese melts.

Serve

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.

Parmesan cheese + cheesetop 3% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together1,041 recipes

Shared aroma: ethyl 2-methylbutyrate (fruity, apple).
Parmesan cheese + peppertop 14% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together5,322 recipes

Shared aroma: ethyl 2-methylbutyrate (fruity, apple).
Cheese + peppertop 18% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together7,861 recipes

Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).
Parmesan cheese + eggtop 18% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together3,368 recipes

Shared aroma: 1-octen-3-ol (mushroom, earthy).
Cheese + eggtop 28% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together6,253 recipes

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

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

What each ingredient does

Eggs: Set into the structure of the omelette as they cook, holding the filling together.
Parmesan cheese: Adds savoury, salty flavour and a little browning at the edges of the omelette.
Gruyère cheese: Melts into the folded omelette, giving a creamy, stretchy texture.

The step that matters

Cook until the edges start to set, then add the Gruyère. Adding the cheese too early or cooking the eggs too long makes the omelette dry or rubbery. Wait until the surface is just set but still moist so the cheese melts without overcooking the eggs.

“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.