Name: How to Make an Omelette
Ingredients: 1 ounce butter; 3 eggs; 1 tablespoon chopped parsley; 1 pinch coarse sea salt; Optional: 1 tablespoon grated cheese or fruit or cooked tomatoes or grated onion

Why it works: Butter and cheese 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 ↓

How to Make an Omelette

Ingredients

1 ounce butter
3 eggs
1 tablespoon chopped parsley
1 pinch coarse sea salt
Optional: 1 tablespoon grated cheese or fruit or cooked tomatoes or grated onion

Directions

Heat a clean frying pan over medium heat and add the butter.
Beat the eggs with parsley and salt in a bowl until just combined.
Pour the egg mixture into the pan once the butter is melted.
As it cooks, lift the edges with a knife and push them toward the center.
When the omelette is set, fold it and serve immediately.
For a cheese omelette, add grated cheese to the mixture before cooking.
For a sweet omelette, spread fruit on top before folding.

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.

Butter + cheesetop 8% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together7,962 recipes

Shared aroma: delta-dodecalactone (sweet, creamy).
Butter + parsleytop 15% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together28,563 recipes

Shared aroma: trans-2-hexenal (green, leafy).
Butter + eggtop 17% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together118,967 recipes

Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).
Egg + parsleytop 21% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together18,765 recipes

Shared aroma: 2,4-decadienal (seaweed).
Parsley + cheesetop 25% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together1,507 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

Eggs: Set into a tender structure as they cook, forming the body of the omelette.
Butter: Coats the pan so the eggs release cleanly and add richness to the flavor.

The step that matters

Lift the edges and push them toward the center as it cooks. Moving the cooking egg lets liquid flow into the gaps and cook quickly, giving small, even curds and a tender texture. Leaving the edges still will make the omelette tough and rubbery.

Swap the parsley

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

Nutmegfits about as well
Parsleythe original
Capersfits about as well
Thymefits about as well

Fit is the average pairing score against butter, egg, cheese. 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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How to Make an Omelette