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Baked Omelet

A baked egg dish made with milk, corn starch, eggs, butter, and salt.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 5 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 ↓

Baked Omelet

Oven, in the book's wordsA moderate oven

Ingredients

Directions

The book says “a moderate oven”. The 350°F (175°C) in the steps is the modern equivalent, not the book's own figure.

Make the base

  1. Heat ½ cup of milk to boiling.

  2. Mix corn starch with ¼ cup of cold milk and stir into the boiling milk.

  3. Cook for one minute, stirring constantly.

  4. Add salt and butter, then remove from heat.

Bake and serve

  1. Beat the yolks and whites of the eggs separately, then stir them into the cooked mixture.

  2. Pour the mixture into a buttered baking dish and bake at 350°F (175°C) for about 12 minutes.

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

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

  2. Milk + corntop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together6,955 recipes

    Shared aroma: hexanal (green, grassy).

  3. Corn + buttertop 14% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together7,345 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2,3-pentanedione (butter, sweet).

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

    Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).

  5. Egg + milktop 18% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together88,785 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 a custardy structure as they cook, giving the omelette its body.
Corn starch
Thickens the hot milk into a smooth base that holds the eggs in place.
Milk
Provides liquid and moisture that turns the starch-thickened base creamy.
Butter
Adds richness and fat for a softer, more tender texture.

The step that matters

Cook the starch base for one minute while stirring constantly. Cornstarch thickens only when heated to boiling and stirred, and it must be fully cooked to lose its raw starchy taste. Stirring prevents lumps and scorching on the bottom of the pan.

“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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