Skip to main content
Main

Omelette Aux Fines Herbes

A French omelette flavored with finely chopped herbs.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 4 ingredients
Jump to recipe ↓

Why it works: Butter and parsley are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 15% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 28,563 recipes. Both carry trans-2-hexenal, which smells green, leafy. The science ↓

Omelette Aux Fines Herbes

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. In a bowl, beat the eggs with a pinch of salt until well mixed.

  2. Chop the fresh herbs finely and stir them into the egg mixture.

  3. Heat the butter in a frying pan over medium heat until melted.

Cook and serve

  1. Pour the egg mixture into the pan and cook for about 2-3 minutes until the edges set.

  2. Gently lift the edges with a spatula, allowing uncooked egg to flow underneath.

  3. When the omelette is mostly set but still slightly runny on top, fold it in half and 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. Butter + parsleytop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together28,563 recipes

    Shared aroma: trans-2-hexenal (green, leafy).

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

    Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).

  3. Egg + parsleytop 21% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together18,765 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2,4-decadienal (seaweed).

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

What each ingredient does

Eggs
Set into a tender structure when heated, forming the body of the omelette.
Butter
Coats the pan so the eggs release cleanly and add richness to the flavor.
Fresh herbs
Add aroma and fresh flavor to the beaten eggs.

The step that matters

Lifting the edges while the eggs cook. Lifting the set edges lets uncooked egg flow onto the hot pan, so the omelette cooks evenly and stays tender. Folding too late leaves it dry; too early leaves it runny.

Swap the parsley

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

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

Fit is the average pairing score against 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.

You might also like

Tomato SoupTomato Soup526 recipesBrown BreadBrown Bread461 recipesMutton BrothMutton Broth292 recipesYorkshire PuddingYorkshire Pudding264 recipes