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Rum Omelet

A fried egg dish flavored with rum and dusted with powdered sugar.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 6 ingredients
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Why it works: Milk and rum work together. They rank in the top 12% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 967 recipes. Both carry ethyl 2-methylbutyrate, which smells fruity, apple. The science ↓

Rum Omelet

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the pan

  1. Heat a small amount of lard in a pan until it simmers, then remove the lard and wipe the pan dry.

  2. Add a little fresh lard to the pan for frying the omelet.

Make the omelet

  1. Break the eggs into a bowl and whisk them thoroughly with a fork.

  2. Beat in the milk and continue whisking until ready to pour into the pan over a hot flame.

  3. Pour the egg mixture into the pan.

  4. Once the omelet sets, remove the pan from the hottest part of the flame.

  5. Use a knife to prevent sticking.

  6. Shape the omelet when the center is almost firm for easy folding.

  7. When slightly browned, turn the omelet onto a hot dish.

Flame and serve

  1. Dust the omelet with powdered sugar.

  2. Singe the sugar into stripes with a hot iron rod.

  3. Pour the warm rum around the omelet.

  4. Ignite the rum at the table.

  5. Use a tablespoon to dash the burning rum over the omelet.

  6. Extinguish the fire.

  7. Serve.

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. Milk + rumtop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together967 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl 2-methylbutyrate (fruity, apple).

  2. Sugar + rumtop 14% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together2,908 recipes

    Shared aroma: beta-damascenone (apple, rose).

  3. Egg + milktop 18% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together88,785 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).

  4. Milk + sugartop 18% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together77,875 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).

  5. Egg + sugartop 21% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together122,807 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).

Milk and sugar barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 77,875 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 into the structure of the omelet as they cook.
Milk
Adds moisture and softness to the beaten eggs.
Jamaica rum
Warmed and ignited for flavour and a dramatic flambé at the table.
Powdered sugar
Melts and caramelises under a hot rod, adding sweetness and browned stripes.

The step that matters

Remove the pan from the hottest part of the flame once the omelet sets. Intense direct heat can scorch the bottom before the centre firms, and high heat toughens eggs. Moving the pan off the hottest point lets the omelet cook gently and brown evenly.

“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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