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Cheese Omelet

A quick egg and cheese dish cooked in a skillet and finished in the oven.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
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Why it works: Milk and butter 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 ↓

Cheese Omelet

Oven, in the book's wordsA moderate oven

Ingredients

Directions

The book says “a moderate oven”. The 400°F (200°C) in the steps is the modern equivalent, not the book's own figure.

Prepare

  1. Beat the eggs well and mix with a little milk, salt, and pepper.

  2. Heat a well-buttered skillet on the stove until hot.

Cook and finish

  1. Pour the egg mixture into the skillet and cook until the edges begin to set.

  2. Sprinkle grated cheese over the top.

  3. Transfer to a 400°F (200°C) oven until set and the cheese is melted.

  4. Serve immediately.

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

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

  2. Cheese + buttertop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together7,962 recipes

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

  3. Milk + cheesetop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together4,426 recipes

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

  4. Egg + buttertop 17% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together118,967 recipes

    Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).

  5. Pepper + cheesetop 18% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together7,861 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).

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

What each ingredient does

Eggs
Set into a delicate structure as they cook, forming the body of the omelette.
Milk
Adds moisture, keeping the eggs tender rather than dry and rubbery.
Grated cheese
Melts into the eggs, adding richness and savory flavor.
Butter
Coats the skillet to prevent sticking and adds richness and flavor.

The step that matters

Pour the egg mixture into the skillet and cook until the edges begin to set. Eggs set quickly from the edges inward when proteins coagulate under heat. Cooking too long or on high heat makes them tough and rubbery, so the centre should still look slightly moist when the oven finishes the set.

“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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