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Ham Omelette

A fried omelette with ham, eggs, milk, flour, butter, parsley, pepper, and salt.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 8 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 ↓

Ham Omelette

Ingredients

Directions

Make the batter

  1. Heat the butter in a frying pan until it melts.

  2. Mix the ham, eggs, milk, flour, parsley, pepper, and salt into a batter.

Cook and serve

  1. Pour the batter into the frying pan and add the minced ham in the center as it begins to set.

  2. Fry slowly, ensuring the batter does not burn.

  3. Once one side is done, fold the edges over the meat and turn with a spatula.

  4. When both sides are golden brown, slide onto a hot dish.

  5. Serve with gravy on the side.

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

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

  3. Flour + buttertop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together124,287 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  4. Flour + parsleytop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together16,675 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  5. Milk + flourtop 14% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together78,219 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

Flour and butter barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 124,287 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 the batter and bind it into a tender, cohesive omelette.
Flour
Thickens the batter so it holds together rather than running thin.
Milk
Adds moisture and softness to the batter as it cooks.
Butter
Greases the pan and adds richness and browning to the surface.
Remains of boiled or fried ham, minced fine
Provides the savory meat filling that flavors the omelette.

The step that matters

Fry slowly so the batter does not burn. High heat browns the outside before the egg and flour mixture sets through, leaving the centre runny or the base scorched. Gentle heat lets the proteins set evenly while the surface turns golden.

Swap the parsley

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

  1. Nutmegfits about as well
  2. Parsleythe original
  3. Cinnamonfits about as well
  4. Capersfits less well

Fit is the average pairing score against ham, egg, milk, flour, butter, pepper. 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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