Name: Omelette Au BImm
Ingredients: 3 eggs; 3 glasses of rum; sugar (for serving with apricots or rhubarb)

Why it works: Rum and sugar are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 14% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 2,908 recipes. Both carry beta-damascenone, which smells apple, rose. The science ↓

Omelette Au BImm

Ingredients

3 eggs
3 glasses of rum
sugar (for serving with apricots or rhubarb)

Directions

Make the omelette

Beat the eggs until well mixed.
Pour the eggs into a hot skillet and cook until set.

Flambé and serve

Just before serving, pour the rum over the omelette and ignite it.
Serve with apricots or rhubarb sprinkled with sugar if desired.

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.

Rum + sugartop 14% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked together2,908 recipes

Shared aroma: beta-damascenone (apple, rose).
Egg + sugartop 21% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together122,807 recipes

Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).
Egg + rumtop 27% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together1,589 recipes

Shared aroma: 2,4-decadienal (seaweed).

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

What each ingredient does

Eggs: Set by heat into the omelette's structure, turning from liquid to a tender, firm body.
Rum: Adds aroma and flavour, and its alcohol vapour ignites to create the flambé.

The step that matters

Igniting the rum. Flambé works because the alcohol vapour above the spirit catches fire. Pour the rum just before serving, away from the face and any overhead items, and use it sparingly, since a large amount of spirit can burn strongly and dangerously.

“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.