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Eggs and Omelets

An omelet is a dish of beaten eggs cooked in butter in a frying pan, with pepper and salt.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
By Payne, A. G. (Arthur Gay), 1840-1894 · From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 14 ingredients
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Why it works: Butter and egg are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 17% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 118,967 recipes. Both carry decanal, which smells soap, orange peel. The science ↓

Eggs and Omelets

Ingredients

Directions

  1. Melt four ounces of butter in a frying-pan.

  2. Beat up six eggs till they froth.

  3. Add a little pepper and salt.

  4. Pour the beaten eggs into the frying-pan as soon as the butter begins to frizzle.

  5. Scrape the bottom of the frying-pan in every part, not forgetting the edge, with a tablespoon.

  6. Continue scraping until about two-thirds or more are lumpy and the rest liquid.

  7. Slacken the heat by lifting the frying-pan from the fire.

  8. Push the omelet into half the frying-pan in the shape of a semicircle.

  9. Take the frying-pan off the fire and hold it slanting in front of the fire until the whole is set.

  10. Slide the omelet from the frying-pan onto a hot dish with an egg-slice, and serve.

Nutrition, whole recipe (rough)

186Calories
7 gProtein
17 gFat
2 gCarbs
What these numbers assume: 4 portions
IngredientPortion assumedkcal
Butter1 tbsp (14g)102
Egg1 large egg (50g)78
Black Pepper1 tsp ground (2.3g)6
Salt1 tsp (6g)0

One typical portion per ingredient; the recipe's quantities are not counted. A rough guide only, not for medical or dietary planning.

By Payne, A. G. (Arthur Gay), 1840-1894. 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. See the original page.

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

    Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).

  2. Butter + peppertop 21% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together85,593 recipes

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

  3. Egg + peppertop 33% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together50,580 recipes

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

Egg and pepper barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 50,580 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
Set into a delicate structure when heated, forming the body of the omelet.
Butter
Fat that coats the pan, adds richness, and helps the eggs release and brown lightly.

The step that matters

Scraping the eggs while they set. Constant scraping keeps the egg in small lumps that cook gently and stay tender. Lifting the pan to slacken the heat stops the underside from browning or toughening before the top is 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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