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Omelet a LA Paysanne

A French country omelet with bacon, potatoes, and chives.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 7 ingredients
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Why it works: Chive and potato work together. They rank in the top 2% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 611 recipes. Both carry decanal, which smells soap, orange peel. The science ↓

Omelet a LA Paysanne

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the filling

  1. In a frying pan, cook the diced bacon in 1.5 ounces of butter over medium heat until it begins to fry.

  2. Add the diced potatoes and cook at low heat until the potatoes are tender.

  3. Stir in the chives or parsley once the potatoes are cooked.

Make the omelet

  1. In a bowl, beat the eggs with salt and pepper, considering the salt from the bacon.

  2. Add the cooked bacon and potatoes to the beaten eggs and mix well.

  3. Wipe the frying pan with a clean cloth and return it to high heat with the remaining butter.

  4. When the butter is lightly browned, pour in the egg mixture.

  5. Shake the pan and stir the eggs with a fork until they begin to set.

  6. Flip the omelet like a pancake and cook for a few more seconds.

  7. Slide the omelet onto a dish 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. Chive + potatotop 2% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together611 recipes

    Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).

  2. Potato + peppertop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together8,305 recipes

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

  3. Chive + peppertop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together2,885 recipes

    Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).

  4. Butter + potatotop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together6,456 recipes

    Shared aroma: (z)-4-heptenal (biscuit, cream).

  5. Butter + chivetop 16% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together2,097 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

Eggs
Set into a tender structure that holds the bacon and potatoes together.
Bacon
Adds savory, salty flavour and fat that carries into the eggs.
Butter
Adds richness and browning flavour to the pan and the omelet.
Potatoes
Add body and soft texture to the omelet filling.

The step that matters

Shake and stir the eggs until they just begin to set. Eggs turn from smooth to rubbery when overcooked, so pulling the pan and stirring while the surface is still slightly wet keeps the omelet tender. Residual heat finishes the set after it is slid out.

Swap the potato

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (egg, butter, chive, pepper):

  1. Shallotfits better
  2. Leekfits better
  3. Asparagusfits about as well
  4. Potatothe original

Fit is the average pairing score against egg, butter, chive, pepper. 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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