Why it works: Milk and butter are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 7% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 81,283 recipes. Both carry (z)-4-heptenal, which smells biscuit, cream. The science ↓
Omelet
Ingredients
Directions
Prepare the batter
Mix the new milk and flour in a bowl until smooth.
Whisk together the yolks and whites of the eggs.
Add the whisked eggs to the milk mixture.
Cook and serve
Heat a frying pan.
Add the butter to the pan until melted.
Pour half of the egg mixture into the hot butter.
When it begins to set, place the red currant jelly in the center.
Cover the jelly with the remaining egg mixture.
Cook until set.
Serve immediately.
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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Milk + buttertop 7% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together81,283 recipes
Shared aroma: (z)-4-heptenal (biscuit, cream).
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Flour + buttertop 12% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together124,287 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
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Milk + flourtop 14% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together78,219 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
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Flour + eggtop 15% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together106,462 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
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Egg + buttertop 17% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together118,967 recipes
Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).
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 the omelet into a structure as they cook and firm up.
- New milk
- Thins the eggs, keeping the omelet tender and moist as it sets.
- Fine flour
- Thickens the milk mixture slightly, giving the batter body.
- Fresh butter
- Fats the hot pan so the omelet releases and adds richness.
- Red currant jelly
- Adds sweetness and a tart fruit flavor inside the omelet.
The step that matters
Pour the egg into hot butter and let it begin to set before adding the jelly. Eggs set with heat, so the pan must be hot enough to firm the base quickly. Adding the jelly only after the edges begin to set keeps it from sinking and leaking through the still-liquid egg.
Swap the red currant
How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (milk, flour, egg, butter):
- Vanillafits better
- Raisinfits better
- Figfits better
- Red currantthe original
Fit is the average pairing score against milk, flour, egg, 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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