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Roman Omelet

A cheese omelet with parsley, shallot, nutmeg, and white wine, cooked slowly in butter.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 7 ingredients
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Why it works: Parsley and shallot match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 3,737 recipes. Both carry 2,4-decadienal, which smells seaweed. The science ↓

Roman Omelet

Ingredients

Directions

Make the filling

  1. Melt the butter in a pan over low heat.

  2. Add the cheese, parsley, shallot, nutmeg, and white wine, stirring constantly until the cheese melts.

Cook the omelette

  1. Break and stir in the eggs, mixing well.

  2. Cook on a slow fire until set, then garnish with parsley.

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 + shallottop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together3,737 recipes

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

  2. Parsley + nutmegtop 3% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together5,062 recipes

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

  3. Shallot + nutmegtop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together1,019 recipes

    Shared aroma: eucalyptol (eucalyptus, herbal).

  4. Butter + cheesetop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together7,962 recipes

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

  5. Butter + white winetop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together5,083 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl octanoate (fruity, wine).

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

What each ingredient does

Eggs
Set to form the structure of the omelette as they cook.
Grated cheese
Melts into the eggs, adding richness and a savoury flavour.
Butter
Adds fat and flavour to the pan and helps prevent sticking.
Shallot
Adds a mild onion-like sweetness and aroma when cooked gently.
White wine
Adds acidity and aroma that brighten the cheese and egg flavours.

The step that matters

Cook on a slow fire until set. Eggs turn tough and rubbery when cooked over high heat, so a gentle heat lets the proteins set softly and keeps the omelette tender.

Swap the nutmeg

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (butter, cheese, parsley, shallot, white wine, egg):

  1. Capersfits better
  2. Tarragonfits better
  3. Thymefits better
  4. Nutmegthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against butter, cheese, parsley, shallot, white wine, egg. 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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