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Omelet, with Cheese, or Fondue

A quick cheese omelet made by beating eggs, adding cheese and butter, cooking until thick, then seasoning and serving warm.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
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Why it works: Cheese and butter are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 8% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 7,962 recipes. Both carry delta-dodecalactone, which smells sweet, creamy. The science ↓

Omelet, with Cheese, or Fondue

Ingredients

Directions

  1. Break and beat the eggs well in a saucepan.

  2. Add the chopped cheese and butter to the eggs.

  3. Place the saucepan on the fire and stir with a wooden spoon until thick and soft.

  4. Season with salt and pepper according to taste.

  5. Serve on a warm dish.

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. Cheese + buttertop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together7,962 recipes

    Shared aroma: delta-dodecalactone (sweet, creamy).

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

    Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).

  3. Cheese + peppertop 18% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together7,861 recipes

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

  4. Butter + peppertop 21% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together85,593 recipes

    Shared aroma: trans-2-nonenal (cardboard, fatty).

  5. Egg + cheesetop 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 when heated to form the soft, thick body of the omelet.
Gruyère cheese
Melts into the eggs, adding richness and a savoury, creamy flavour.
Butter
Adds fat for a smoother, richer texture and helps prevent sticking.

The step that matters

Stirring over the fire until thick and soft. Eggs set quickly with direct heat, so stirring keeps the curds small and tender. If left still too long, they over-coagulate and turn rubbery or grainy.

“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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