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Savoury Omelet

A butter‑rich omelet with ham, parsley, shallot, and spices.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 10 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 ↓

Savoury Omelet

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the butter

  1. Melt ½ cup of butter in a pan until heated but not discolored.

Make the omelet

  1. In a bowl, combine 4 eggs, 2 teaspoons parsley, 2 teaspoons ham, minced shallot, pepper, salt, nutmeg, sugar, and 1 oz. butter.

  2. Mix well with a fork until the eggs are light and frothy.

  3. Pour the mixture into the pan with hot butter and stir with a wooden spoon until it begins to set over medium heat.

  4. When the eggs start to set, shape the omelet into a crescent with a knife.

  5. Occasionally run the knife around the edges to prevent sticking.

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

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

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

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

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

    Shared aroma: eucalyptol (eucalyptus, herbal).

  5. Pepper + nutmegtop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together13,015 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
Set and form the structure of the omelet as they cook.
Butter
Coats the pan and adds richness while helping prevent sticking.

The step that matters

Pour the mixture into the hot butter and stir until it begins to set. Eggs set through heat-driven protein coagulation. If the pan is not hot enough or the heat is too high, the eggs can stick or turn rubbery, so stirring over medium heat keeps the texture tender.

Swap the shallot

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

  1. Shallotthe original
  2. Capsicumfits about as well
  3. Carrotfits about as well
  4. Leekfits about as well

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