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Omelet of Herbs

A lightly cooked egg omelet mixed with parsley, onion, chives, shallots, sorrel, and chervil.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 8 ingredients
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Why it works: Sorrel and chervil match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 247 recipes. Both carry coumarin, which smells sweet, hay. The science ↓

Omelet of Herbs

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. In a bowl, beat the eggs until well mixed.

  2. Add the mixed parsley, onion, chives, shallots, sorrel, and chervil to the eggs.

Cook and serve

  1. Melt butter in a skillet over medium heat.

  2. Pour the egg mixture into the skillet and cook until set, folding as needed.

  3. Serve 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. Sorrel + cherviltop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together247 recipes

    Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).

  2. Chive + cherviltop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together370 recipes

    Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).

  3. Shallot + cherviltop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together266 recipes

    Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).

  4. Shallot + sorreltop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together38 recipes

    Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).

  5. Chive + shallottop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together450 recipes

    Shared aroma: 1-octen-3-ol (mushroom, earthy).

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, holding the herbs together.
Butter
Fat for frying that keeps the eggs from sticking and adds richness.
Parsley
Adds fresh, green aroma and flavor to the eggs.
Chives
Contribute a mild onion-like aroma and fresh flavor.
Shallots
Add a mild, sweet allium flavor that softens as it cooks.

The step that matters

Cooking the egg mixture until set. Eggs cook quickly and turn rubbery if overheated. Cooking over medium heat and folding gently keeps the omelet tender, with curds forming evenly instead of a dry, toughened surface.

Swap the onion

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (parsley, chive, shallot, sorrel, chervil, egg, butter):

  1. Leekfits better
  2. Lettucefits better
  3. Welsh onionfits better
  4. Onionthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against parsley, chive, shallot, sorrel, chervil, 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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