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Plain Omelet

A simple egg omelet cooked with butter, onions, pepper, and salt.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
By Eliza Leslie · From a historical cookbook (Project Gutenberg) · 6 ingredients
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Why it works: Onion and pepper are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 11% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 68,474 recipes. Both carry 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine, which smells earthy, pea. The science ↓

Plain Omelet

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the eggs

  1. Take six eggs, leaving out the whites of two.

  2. Beat the eggs very lightly, and strain them through a sieve.

  3. Add pepper and salt to taste.

  4. Divide two ounces of fresh butter into little bits, and put it into the egg.

  5. Mix optional herbs and onions into the beaten egg before cooking.

Cook the omelet

  1. Have ready a quarter of a pound of butter in a frying-pan, or a flat stew-pan.

  2. Place the pan on hot coals, and have the butter boiling when you put in the beaten egg.

  3. Fry it gently until it is a light brown on the under side.

  4. Do not turn it while cooking as it will do better without.

  5. You may brown the top by holding a hot shovel over it.

  6. Use a pan made purposely for omelets.

Serve

  1. When done, lay it in the dish, fold it in half, and stick sprigs of curled parsley over it.

  2. Season with veal kidney or sweet-bread minced; with cold ham shredded fine; or with minced oysters; with tops of asparagus boiled and cut into small pieces.

Nutrition, whole recipe (rough)

230Calories
8 gProtein
17 gFat
12 gCarbs
What these numbers assume: 5 portions
IngredientPortion assumedkcal
Butter1 tbsp (14g)102
Egg1 large egg (50g)78
Onion1 medium (110g)44
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 Eliza Leslie. 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. Onion + peppertop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together68,474 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).

  2. Butter + oniontop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together42,912 recipes

    Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).

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

    Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).

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

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

  5. 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 the structure of the omelet when cooked, holding it together as it firms.
Butter
Fries the omelet and adds richness and a golden-brown crust on the underside.
Onions
Add savoury flavour and aroma when mixed into the beaten eggs.

The step that matters

Have the butter boiling before adding the egg. Hot fat sets the egg surface quickly, giving a light brown underside and a tender interior. Cooking in cool butter lets the egg soak up grease and toughen as it cooks slowly.

Swap the onion

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

  1. Capsicumfits better
  2. Asparagusfits better
  3. Chivefits better
  4. Onionthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against butter, egg, 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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