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To Make an Omelette

A cooked egg dish flavored with parsley, chives, pepper, and salt.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 6 ingredients
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Why it works: Parsley and pepper match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 2% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 34,122 recipes. Both carry 4'-methylacetophenone, which smells bitter almond. The science ↓

To Make an Omelette

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the eggs

  1. Break the eggs into a dish and beat them lightly.

  2. Add the chopped parsley, chives, pepper, and salt; mix well.

Cook and serve

  1. Melt the butter in a pan over medium heat until nearly brown.

  2. Pour in the egg mixture and stir gently.

  3. Cook for a few minutes until set, then fold the omelette in half.

  4. Serve immediately while hot.

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 + peppertop 2% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together34,122 recipes

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

  2. Parsley + chivetop 3% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together2,150 recipes

    Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).

  3. Chive + peppertop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together2,885 recipes

    Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).

  4. Parsley + buttertop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together28,563 recipes

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

  5. Chive + buttertop 16% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together2,097 recipes

    Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).

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

What each ingredient does

Eggs
Set into the soft structure of the omelette as they cook, holding the filling together.
Butter
Adds richness and flavor, and browns slightly in the pan for aroma.
Parsley
Contributes fresh, herbal aroma and color to the eggs.
Chives
Adds mild onion-like flavor and fresh aroma to the eggs.

The step that matters

Pour in the egg mixture and stir gently. Gentle stirring keeps the eggs in soft curds that set into a tender omelette. Vigorous stirring or high heat can toughen the proteins and make the texture rubbery.

Swap the chive

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

  1. Shallotfits about as well
  2. Chivethe original
  3. Carrotfits about as well
  4. Capsicumfits about as well

Fit is the average pairing score against egg, parsley, pepper, 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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