Name: Friar's Omelette
Ingredients: 10 large apples; 2 tablespoons butter; ½ pound sugar; ¼ teaspoon salt; 1 egg; fine bread crumbs; sugar for serving

Why it works: Butter and bread are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 7% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 27,232 recipes. Both carry delta-decalactone, which smells sweet, creamy. The science ↓

Friar's Omelette

Ingredients

Directions

The book gives no oven temperature. The 350°F (175°C) in the steps was added when the recipe was transcribed, as a starting point.

Prepare the apple purée

Pare and core the apples, then stew them until tender.
Add butter, sugar, and salt, then rub through a sieve.
Mix in the beaten egg.

Assemble and bake

Butter a mold and coat it with bread crumbs.
Fill the mold with the stewed apples and top with another layer of bread crumbs.
Bake at 350°F (175°C) for 30 minutes.

Serve

Turn out from the mold, sprinkle with sugar, and serve 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.

Butter + breadtop 7% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together27,232 recipes

Shared aroma: delta-decalactone (sweet, creamy).
Egg + breadtop 13% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together22,662 recipes

Shared aroma: (e)-2-octenal (fatty, green).
Apple + breadtop 14% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together1,790 recipes

Shared aroma: 2,4-decadienal (seaweed).
Apple + buttertop 14% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together8,706 recipes

Shared aroma: trans-2-nonenal (cardboard, fatty).
Butter + eggtop 17% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together118,967 recipes

Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).

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

What each ingredient does

Apples: Provide the bulk and flavor of the filling as they soften into a purée.
Egg: Binds the stewed apple mixture so it holds its shape when turned out.
Butter: Adds richness and fat, giving the purée a smoother, softer texture.
Sugar: Sweetens the filling and adds a light caramelized finish on the surface.

The step that matters

Rubbing the stewed apples through a sieve. Apples that are not fully tender or are sieved unevenly leave lumps that spoil the smooth, set texture. Pressing them completely through the sieve gives a uniform purée that holds together when baked and turned out.