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To Make an Omelette

A quick egg omelette cooked with butter, parsley, chives, pepper, and salt.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
By Mary Randolph · From a historical cookbook (Project Gutenberg) · 6 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 ↓

To Make an Omelette

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. Break six or eight eggs in a dish, beat them a little, add parsley and chives chopped small, with pepper and salt; mix all well together.

  2. Put a piece of butter in a pan, let it melt over a clear fire till nearly brown.

Cook and serve

  1. Pour in the eggs, stir it in, and in a few minutes it will be done sufficiently.

  2. Double it, and dish it quite hot.

Nutrition, whole recipe (rough)

188Calories
7 gProtein
17 gFat
2 gCarbs
What these numbers assume: 6 portions
IngredientPortion assumedkcal
Butter1 tbsp (14g)102
Egg1 large egg (50g)78
Black Pepper1 tsp ground (2.3g)6
Parsley1 tbsp chopped fresh (3.8g)1
Chive1 tbsp (3g)1
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 Mary Randolph. Recipe from a historical cookbook (Project Gutenberg).

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. Parsley + peppertop 2% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together34,122 recipes

    Shared aroma: 4'-methylacetophenone (bitter almond).

  2. Parsley + chivetop 3% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together2,150 recipes

    Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).

  3. Chive + peppertop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together2,885 recipes

    Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).

  4. Butter + parsleytop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together28,563 recipes

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

  5. Butter + chivetop 16% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together2,097 recipes

    Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).

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

What each ingredient does

Eggs
Set when heated, forming the body of the omelette.
Butter
Fat that cooks the eggs and, browned, adds a nutty flavour.
Chives
Add a mild onion-like aroma to the eggs.

The step that matters

Melting the butter until nearly brown. Butter that is nearly brown gives a nutty, savoury flavour, but it burns quickly over a fire. Burnt butter tastes bitter and can scorch the eggs, so watch the pan closely and keep the heat clear and steady.

Swap the chive

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

  1. Shallotfits about as well
  2. Chivethe original
  3. Carrotfits about as well
  4. Capsicumfits about as well

Fit is the average pairing score against butter, egg, parsley, pepper. 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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