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French Omelette

A French omelette made with milk, bread crumbs, eggs, flour, onion, parsley, pepper, salt, and butter.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 9 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 ↓

French Omelette

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. In a bowl, combine milk, bread crumbs, eggs, flour, onion, parsley, pepper, and salt.

  2. Melt butter in a skillet over medium heat.

Cook and serve

  1. Pour the mixture into the skillet and cook until the bottom is brown.

  2. Carefully flip the omelette to cook the other side.

  3. Fold the omelette in half and serve.

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

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

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

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

  4. Onion + parsleytop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together25,843 recipes

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

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

    Shared aroma: 2-undecenal (sweet).

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

What each ingredient does

Eggs
Set into the structure that holds the omelette together as it cooks.
Bread crumbs
Absorb the milk and eggs, giving the omelette a soft, thick body.
Milk
Adds moisture and tenderness to the eggs as they set.
Flour
Thickens the mixture slightly, helping it hold together when flipped.
Butter
Adds richness and helps the bottom brown in the skillet.

The step that matters

Flip the omelette carefully. The mixture is soft and only partly set, so it can tear or break when turned. Letting the bottom brown and set first gives it enough firmness to flip cleanly.

Swap the onion

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

  1. Shallotfits better
  2. Chivefits better
  3. Potatofits better
  4. Onionthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against milk, bread, egg, flour, parsley, pepper, 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.

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