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Puffy Omelet

A light, airy omelet made by folding beaten egg whites into yolks and cooking in butter.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 7 ingredients
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Why it works: Pepper and parsley 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 ↓

Puffy 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 the mixture

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

  2. Beat the egg yolks until light, then add water, salt, and pepper.

  3. If desired, add a pinch of baking powder to the yolks.

  4. Fold the yolk mixture into the well-beaten egg whites.

Cook and serve

  1. Melt the butter in a saucepan.

  2. Pour the mixture into the hot saucepan and cook until the eggs are set.

  3. If desired, sprinkle grated cheese between the folds before serving.

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. Pepper + parsleytop 2% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together34,122 recipes

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

  2. Mushroom + tomatotop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together2,719 recipes

    Shared aroma: 1-octen-3-one (mushroom, metallic).

  3. Butter + mushroomtop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together12,525 recipes

    Shared aroma: trans-2-decenal (waxy, orange).

  4. Pepper + tomatotop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together17,923 recipes

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

  5. Parsley + tomatotop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together5,398 recipes

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

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

What each ingredient does

Eggs
Whipped whites trap air for lift, and the proteins set to form the omelet's structure.
Butter
Adds fat and flavor and helps keep the omelet from sticking to the saucepan.
Baking powder
Releases gas when heated, helping the omelet rise and stay puffy.

The step that matters

Folding the yolks into the whites. Egg whites hold air that gives the omelet its puff. Folding gently keeps that air in, while stirring or beating deflates the foam and produces a flatter, denser omelet.

Swap the parsley

The recipe marks parsley as optional. How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (egg, butter, pepper, cheese, ham, mushroom, tomato):

  1. Thymefits about as well
  2. Parsleythe original
  3. Celeryfits about as well
  4. Garlicfits about as well

Fit is the average pairing score against egg, butter, pepper, cheese, ham, mushroom, tomato. 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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