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Plain Omelet

A simple omelet made with eggs, water, lemon juice, butter, salt, and parsley.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 6 ingredients
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Why it works: Lemon and parsley match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 14,037 recipes. Both carry beta-phellandrene, which smells minty, terpene. The science ↓

Plain Omelet

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. Use a steel skillet for best results.

  2. Heat the butter slowly in the skillet until melted but not browned.

  3. In a bowl, beat the eggs just enough to mix the whites and yolks.

  4. Add warm water, lemon juice, and season with salt.

Cook the omelet

  1. Pour the egg mixture into the hot skillet all at once.

  2. Let it set for a moment, then loosen the edges with a spatula.

  3. Allow the uncooked portion to flow underneath until the omelet is set.

  4. Sprinkle chopped parsley over the top.

  5. Fold one-third of the omelet over, then fold again as you slide it onto a plate.

  6. 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. Lemon + parsleytop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together14,037 recipes

    Shared aroma: beta-phellandrene (minty, terpene).

  2. Butter + parsleytop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together28,563 recipes

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

  3. Lemon + buttertop 16% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together41,227 recipes

    Shared aroma: 3-hexenal (apple, fruity).

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

    Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).

  5. Egg + lemontop 19% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together44,316 recipes

    Shared aroma: (e,e)-2,4-decadienal (fatty, deep fried).

Egg and lemon barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 44,316 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 into a soft, tender structure when heated, forming the body of the omelet.
Butter
Adds richness and fat, and keeps the eggs from sticking to the skillet.
Warm water
Adds moisture, keeping the cooked eggs tender rather than dry.
Lemon juice
Adds a little acidity that brightens the flavor of the eggs.

The step that matters

Heat the butter slowly until melted but not browned. Egg proteins toughen and turn rubbery when cooked too hot, and butter that browns can taste bitter. Gentle heat keeps the omelet tender and the flavor clean.

“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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