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Plain Cheap Omelet

A simple omelet made with eggs, boiling water, lard or oil, parsley, salt, and pepper.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 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 ↓

Plain Cheap Omelet

Ingredients

Directions

  1. Beat the eggs until the whites and yolks are thoroughly mixed.

  2. Add the boiling water to the eggs and mix well.

  3. Heat a skillet until very hot and add the lard or oil.

  4. Pour the egg mixture into the skillet.

  5. When the omelet is set, sprinkle with chopped parsley.

  6. Carefully turn the omelet over and cook until golden brown on both sides.

  7. Transfer to a serving dish and season with salt and pepper to taste.

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

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

  2. Egg + parsleytop 21% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together18,765 recipes

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

  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.
Boiling water
Adds steam as it heats, helping the omelet stay light and tender.
Lard or oil
Coats the hot skillet so the omelet releases easily and browns evenly.

The step that matters

Turning the omelet. Egg proteins set quickly once heated, so the omelet must be fully set before turning. Turning too early tears it, while waiting too long can make it dry and overcooked.

“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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