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Omelette. Mrs. Woodruff.

A simple omelette made with eggs, milk, flour, pepper, salt, and butter.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 6 ingredients
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Why it works: Milk and butter are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 7% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 81,283 recipes. Both carry (z)-4-heptenal, which smells biscuit, cream. The science ↓

Omelette. Mrs. Woodruff.

Oven, in the book's wordsA good oven

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the eggs

  1. Beat the eggs separately until the yolks are smooth and the whites are stiff.

  2. Combine the yolks with milk, flour, pepper, and salt.

  3. Gently fold in the beaten egg whites.

Cook and serve

  1. Heat butter in a skillet over medium heat.

  2. Pour the mixture into the skillet and cook until set.

  3. 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.

  1. Milk + buttertop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together81,283 recipes

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

  2. Flour + buttertop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together124,287 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  3. Milk + flourtop 14% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together78,219 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  4. Egg + flourtop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together106,462 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  5. Egg + buttertop 17% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together118,967 recipes

    Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).

Flour and butter barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 124,287 recipes: they work on texture and structure more than aroma.

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

What each ingredient does

Eggs
Whites trap air for lightness, while yolks add richness and help the omelette set.
Milk
Adds moisture, so the omelette stays tender rather than dry.
Flour
Gives the mixture a little body so it holds together when cooked.
Butter
Fat for frying that adds flavour and helps prevent sticking and browning the surface.

The step that matters

Gently fold in the beaten egg whites. Stiff whites hold air that gives the omelette its lift. Stirring or mixing vigorously deflates the foam, leaving the omelette dense and flat.

“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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