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Puff Omelet

A baked omelet made with egg yolks, whites, flour, cream or milk, butter, salt, and pepper.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 7 ingredients
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Why it works: Cream and butter are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 8% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 41,516 recipes. Both carry delta-dodecalactone, which smells sweet, creamy. The science ↓

Puff Omelet

Oven, in the book's wordsA hot oven

Ingredients

Directions

The book says “a hot oven”. The 400°F (200°C) in the steps is the modern equivalent, not the book's own figure.

Prepare

  1. Preheat the oven to 400°F (200°C).

  2. Beat the yolks of six eggs and the whites of three eggs until very light.

  3. Mix one tablespoon of flour into a teacup of cream or milk.

  4. Stir the cream mixture into the beaten eggs, adding salt and pepper to taste.

  5. Melt one tablespoon of butter in a pan.

Cook and serve

  1. Pour the egg mixture into the pan and set it in the hot oven.

  2. When it thickens, pour the remaining beaten egg whites over the top.

  3. Return the pan to the oven and bake until a delicate brown color.

  4. Slip the omelet onto a large plate and serve immediately.

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. Cream + buttertop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together41,516 recipes

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

  2. Flour + buttertop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together124,287 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  3. Egg + flourtop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together106,462 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  4. Egg + buttertop 17% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together118,967 recipes

    Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).

  5. Flour + peppertop 19% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together50,459 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

Flour and butter barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 124,287 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

Egg yolks
Add richness and help the mixture set into a tender, custard-like body.
Egg whites
Whipped to hold air, they lift the omelet and give it its puffy rise.
Flour
Thickens the cream so the batter holds together and resists weeping.
Cream or milk
Adds moisture and softness, keeping the omelet tender rather than dry.
Butter
Adds fat and flavor and helps the base brown lightly in the pan.

The step that matters

Serve immediately. The puffed omelet is held up by trapped air and heat in the whipped whites. As it cools, the steam contracts and the structure collapses, so it loses height and becomes dense.

“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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