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Plain Omelet

A simple omelet made with eggs, milk, pepper, salt, bread crumbs, and butter.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 6 ingredients
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Why it works: Bread and butter are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 7% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 27,232 recipes. Both carry delta-decalactone, which smells sweet, creamy. The science ↓

Plain Omelet

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the mixture

  1. Beat the egg whites until stiff.

  2. Beat the yolks until thick.

  3. Add milk, pepper, salt, and soaked bread crumbs to yolks.

  4. Gently fold the beaten egg whites into the yolk mixture.

Cook the omelet

  1. Heat butter in a frying pan until it begins to boil.

  2. Pour the omelet mixture into the pan.

  3. Cook over a clear fire without stirring.

  4. As the eggs firm up, slide a broad knife under them to prevent burning.

  5. Cook for less than ten minutes until done.

  6. Cover the pan with a hot plate.

  7. Flip it over to release the omelet.

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. Bread + buttertop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together27,232 recipes

    Shared aroma: delta-decalactone (sweet, creamy).

  2. Milk + buttertop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together81,283 recipes

    Shared aroma: (z)-4-heptenal (biscuit, cream).

  3. Milk + breadtop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together11,466 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-undecenal (sweet).

  4. Egg + breadtop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together22,662 recipes

    Shared aroma: (e)-2-octenal (fatty, green).

  5. Pepper + breadtop 16% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together20,964 recipes

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

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

What each ingredient does

Eggs
Whites trapped by beating set the structure and give the omelet its light, airy lift.
Milk
Adds moisture so the omelet stays tender rather than dry and rubbery.
Bread crumbs soaked in milk
Hold extra moisture and keep the cooked omelet soft and tender.
Butter
Fat in the pan prevents sticking and adds richness and browning on the base.

The step that matters

Folding in the egg whites. Whites hold air only while they are stiff, so folding them in gently keeps the omelet light. Stirring or deflating them makes the result dense and flat.

“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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