Name: Shredded Wheat Omelet
Ingredients: 1 shredded wheat biscuit; 1 egg; 2 tablespoons milk; ¼ teaspoon salt; ½ teaspoon sugar; butter for frying

Why it works: Wheat and milk are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 6% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 2,418 recipes. Both carry (e,z)-2,6-nonadienal, which smells cucumber, melon. The science ↓

Shredded Wheat Omelet

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

Crush the shredded wheat biscuit.
In a bowl, mix the crushed biscuit with the beaten egg, milk, salt, and sugar until soft.

Cook

Heat a buttered frying pan over medium heat.
Spread the mixture in the pan and cook until browned on both sides.

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.

Wheat + milktop 6% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together2,418 recipes

Shared aroma: (e,z)-2,6-nonadienal (cucumber, melon).
Milk + buttertop 7% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together81,283 recipes

Shared aroma: (z)-4-heptenal (biscuit, cream).
Wheat + biscuittop 9% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together116 recipes

Shared aroma: nonanal (fat, citrus).
Wheat + buttertop 14% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together2,002 recipes

Shared aroma: (z)-4-heptenal (biscuit, cream).
Biscuit + buttertop 17% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together2,009 recipes

Shared aroma: nonanal (fat, citrus).

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

What each ingredient does

Shredded wheat biscuit: Provides the bulk of the omelet and soaks up the milk and egg to hold the mixture together.
Egg: Binds the mixture and sets when cooked, giving the omelet its structure.
Milk: Adds moisture so the crushed biscuit softens and the omelet stays tender.
Sugar: Adds a little sweetness and helps the surface brown in the pan.

“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.