Why it works: Flour and butter are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 12% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 124,287 recipes. Both carry isobutyraldehyde, which smells malty, green. The science ↓
Omelet with Meat
Ingredients
Directions
Prepare the batter
Beat the eggs in a bowl.
Mix the flour with a little butter, salt, and pepper.
Combine the flour mixture with the beaten eggs.
Cook and serve
Cook the omelet in a hot skillet.
Once set, place the seasoned meat over half of the omelet.
Fold the other half over the meat and serve.
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.
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Flour + buttertop 12% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together124,287 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
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Egg + flourtop 15% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together106,462 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
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Meat + buttertop 16% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together7,594 recipes
Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).
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Egg + buttertop 17% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together118,967 recipes
Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).
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Flour + peppertop 19% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together50,459 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
Flour and butter barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 124,287 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
- Set to form the structure of the omelet and bind it together.
- Flour
- Thickens the beaten egg mixture slightly, giving it a more tender body.
- Any kind of meat
- Provides the savory filling that is enclosed when the omelet is folded.
The step that matters
Cook the omelet in a hot skillet. Eggs set quickly when heated, so the omelet must be cooked until just set before adding the meat. Overcooking makes the eggs dry and rubbery, and folding before it sets can cause the omelet to tear.
“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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