Name: Making Omelettes
Ingredients: 6 eggs; 1½ tablespoons flour; 6 tablespoons milk; a little coarse sea salt; 2 cubic inches sweet salt pork (or cold boiled ham or butter)

Why it works: Milk and pork are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 12% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 4,386 recipes. Both carry 4-heptenal, which smells creamy, biscuit. The science ↓

Making Omelettes

Ingredients

6 eggs
1½ tablespoons flour
6 tablespoons milk
a little coarse sea salt
2 cubic inches sweet salt pork (or cold boiled ham or butter)

Directions

Prepare

Mix flour with milk, add yolks of eggs and salt, and beat well.
Beat egg whites separately until frothy.

Cook

Finely chop sweet salt pork and fry in a pan until light brown.
Pour in beaten egg whites, then yolks, and stir briskly until well mixed.
When browned, cut into pieces and turn to brown the other side.
Ensure the frying pan is not too hot for a light brown omelette.

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.

Milk + porktop 12% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together4,386 recipes

Shared aroma: 4-heptenal (creamy, biscuit).
Flour + milktop 14% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked together78,219 recipes

Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
Egg + flourtop 15% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked together106,462 recipes

Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
Egg + milktop 18% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together88,785 recipes

Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).
Flour + porktop 27% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked together11,187 recipes

Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

Flour and milk barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 78,219 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: Whites beaten to froth and yolks mixed in give the omelette its light, airy structure.
Flour: Thickens the milk and egg mixture so the omelette holds together when turned.
Milk: Adds moisture, keeping the omelette tender rather than dry.
Sweet salt pork: Fat from the pork fries in the pan, adding savoury flavour and helping the omelette brown.

The step that matters

Keep the frying pan not too hot. Excess heat browns the outside before the eggs set through, leaving the omelette dark and dense. Moderate heat lets the egg set gently and turn light brown.

“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.

More omelette recipes

Cheese 71 Ham 64 French 61 Sweet 59 Herb 54 Bread 49 See all 137 →

Pork Cake107 recipes

Roast Pork82 recipes

Tomato Soup526 recipes

Brown Bread461 recipes

Like knowing why a recipe works?

The free Flavor Lab newsletter: one surprising pairing a week and the molecular reason it works, in 60 seconds. No spam, unsubscribe anytime.

Prefer an account? Create a free account to save pairings and unlock the full chemistry.

Making Omelettes