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Apple Omelet

A baked apple and egg mixture flavored with butter, sugar, nutmeg, and rosewater.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 6 ingredients
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Why it works: Apple and nutmeg are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 12% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 3,790 recipes. Both carry estragole, which smells anise, licorice. The science ↓

Apple Omelet

Oven, in the book's wordsA moderate oven

Ingredients

Directions

The book says “a moderate oven”. The 350°F (175°C) in the steps is the modern equivalent, not the book's own figure.

Prepare the apples

  1. Pare, core, and stew the apples until soft.

  2. Mash the apples until smooth while they are still hot, then mix in the butter, sugar, and rosewater.

Make the batter

  1. Allow the mixture to cool completely, then beat in the eggs, adding the whites last.

  2. Pour the mixture into a deep, well-buttered baking dish that has been warmed.

Bake and serve

  1. Bake in a moderate oven at 350°F (175°C) until delicately browned.

  2. Serve warm, not hot.

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. Apple + nutmegtop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together3,790 recipes

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

  2. Apple + buttertop 14% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together8,706 recipes

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

  3. Butter + nutmegtop 16% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together24,377 recipes

    Shared aroma: eucalyptol (eucalyptus, herbal).

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

    Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).

  5. Egg + nutmegtop 17% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together24,744 recipes

    Shared aroma: acetic acid (sour, vinegar).

Egg and nutmeg barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 24,744 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

Tart apples
Provide the main body and tart flavour that the omelet is built on.
Eggs
Bind the mixture and set during baking to give the omelet its structure.
Butter
Adds richness and helps the finished omelet brown at the edges.
White sugar
Sweetens the apples and contributes to browning as the omelet bakes.

The step that matters

Cool the apple mixture completely before adding the eggs. If the apple mixture is still hot when the eggs go in, the eggs can begin to scramble or cook unevenly. Cooling first keeps the eggs smooth so they blend evenly and set gently in the oven.

Swap the apple

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

  1. Vanillafits better
  2. Lemonfits better
  3. Raisinfits better
  4. Applethe original

Fit is the average pairing score against butter, egg, sugar, nutmeg. 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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