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Asparagus Omelette

A quick omelette made with canned asparagus, eggs, milk, butter, and salt.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 6 ingredients
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Why it works: Butter and milk are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 7% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 81,283 recipes. Both carry (z)-4-heptenal, which smells biscuit, cream. The science ↓

Asparagus Omelette

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. Cut off the tips from the can of asparagus and place them in melted butter until ready.

  2. Beat the eggs, add the milk, and beat again with the salt.

  3. Grease a medium-sized frying pan with dripping and place a piece of greased paper in it.

Cook the omelettes

  1. Pour half of the beaten eggs into the pan and cook until set.

  2. Sprinkle the asparagus tips across the center, roll into an omelette, and transfer to a plate.

  3. Repeat with the remaining eggs and asparagus tips.

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. Butter + milktop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together81,283 recipes

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

  2. Asparagus + milktop 16% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together650 recipes

    Shared aroma: 1-octen-3-one (mushroom, metallic).

  3. Asparagus + eggtop 17% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,338 recipes

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

  4. Butter + eggtop 17% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together118,967 recipes

    Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).

  5. Asparagus + buttertop 17% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together2,026 recipes

    Shared aroma: trans-2-nonenal (cardboard, fatty).

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

What each ingredient does

Eggs
Set into a structure that holds the rolled omelette together.
Butter
Adds richness and a rounded flavour to the asparagus tips.
Milk
Adds moisture, making the beaten eggs softer and more tender when cooked.
Asparagus
Provides the main vegetable filling and a fresh, grassy flavour.

The step that matters

Cook until set, then roll. Egg proteins set with heat, so cooking the eggs until just set gives a firm base to roll. Overcooking makes the omelette dry and tough, while rolling too early can tear it.

Swap the asparagus

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

  1. Potatofits about as well
  2. Asparagusthe original
  3. Chivefits less well
  4. Leekfits less well

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