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Another Omelet

A quick ham and onion omelet made with eggs, butter, parsley, salt, and pepper.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 7 ingredients
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Why it works: Parsley and pepper match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 2% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 34,122 recipes. Both carry 4'-methylacetophenone, which smells bitter almond. The science ↓

Another Omelet

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the filling

  1. Beat the eggs in a bowl.

  2. Add the chopped onion, ham, parsley, salt, and pepper; mix well.

Cook and serve

  1. Heat the butter in a frying pan over medium heat.

  2. Pour the egg mixture into the pan, stirring constantly until it begins to thicken.

  3. Let it cook undisturbed for 3 minutes until browned.

  4. Fold the omelet in half and slide it onto a dish.

  5. Serve immediately while hot.

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. Parsley + peppertop 2% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together34,122 recipes

    Shared aroma: 4'-methylacetophenone (bitter almond).

  2. Onion + parsleytop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together25,843 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2,4-decadienal (seaweed).

  3. Onion + peppertop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together68,474 recipes

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

  4. Onion + buttertop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together42,912 recipes

    Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).

  5. Parsley + buttertop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together28,563 recipes

    Shared aroma: trans-2-hexenal (green, leafy).

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 omelet as they heat, holding the filling together.
Butter
Coats the pan so the omelet releases cleanly and browns lightly on the surface.
Onion
Adds savory sweetness and aroma as it mixes into the egg.
Ham
Contributes salty, savory flavor and chew to the filling.

The step that matters

Stirring the eggs until they begin to thicken. Stirring keeps the egg moving so curds form small and tender. If the eggs are left still too early, they set in a thick layer and cook unevenly.

Swap the onion

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

  1. Shallotfits better
  2. Carrotfits better
  3. Capsicumfits better
  4. Onionthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against egg, ham, parsley, pepper, 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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