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Another Way to Make Omelet

A quick oyster omelet flavored with mushroom catsup, parsley, nutmeg, and white peppercorns.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 8 ingredients
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Why it works: Parsley and nutmeg match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 3% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 5,062 recipes. Both carry 4'-methylacetophenone, which smells bitter almond. The science ↓

Another Way to Make Omelet

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the oysters

  1. Remove gills from oysters.

  2. Parboil the oysters with white peppercorns.

  3. Strain the oysters.

  4. Chop the oysters.

Prepare the parsley and eggs

  1. Beat the eggs well in a bowl.

  2. Parboil the parsley.

  3. Mince the parsley.

Mix and cook

  1. Mix the oysters, eggs, parsley, nutmeg, and salt together.

  2. Add mushroom catsup.

  3. Mix the mixture well.

  4. Melt the butter in a skillet.

  5. Lightly fry the mixture for 1-2 minutes before serving.

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 + nutmegtop 3% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together5,062 recipes

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

  2. Mushroom + buttertop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together12,525 recipes

    Shared aroma: trans-2-decenal (waxy, orange).

  3. Mushroom + parsleytop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together6,132 recipes

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

  4. Oyster + buttertop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together8,184 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2,6-nonadienal (cucumber, green).

  5. Mushroom + nutmegtop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,988 recipes

    Shared aroma: alpha-pinene (pine, turpentine).

Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs

What each ingredient does

Oysters
Provide the main filling and a briny, savoury flavour.
Eggs
Bind the mixture and set into the omelet structure when fried.
Butter
Adds richness and helps brown the omelet in the skillet.
Mushroom catsup
Adds deep savoury, umami flavour to the filling.

The step that matters

Lightly fry the mixture for 1-2 minutes before serving. Eggs set quickly under heat and become rubbery if overcooked, so a short, gentle fry keeps the omelet tender while the oysters are only warmed through.

Swap the nutmeg

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

  1. Thymefits better
  2. Capersfits about as well
  3. Tarragonfits about as well
  4. Nutmegthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against oyster, egg, mushroom, butter, parsley. 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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