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A Delicate Omelette

A light omelette made with eggs, parsley, salt, pepper, cream, and butter.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 6 ingredients
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Why it works: Parsley and pepper match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 2% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 34,122 recipes. Both carry 4'-methylacetophenone, which smells bitter almond. The science ↓

A Delicate Omelette

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the filling

  1. Break the eggs into a stewpan and add parsley, salt, pepper, and cream, then beat well.

Cook and serve

  1. Melt the butter in an omelette pan over high heat.

  2. Pour the egg mixture into the hot butter and stir quickly until just set.

  3. Shake the pan to color the omelette.

  4. Tilt it to shape, tapping the pan on the stove to help shape the omelette.

  5. Roll it 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. Parsley + peppertop 2% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together34,122 recipes

    Shared aroma: 4'-methylacetophenone (bitter almond).

  2. Cream + buttertop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together41,516 recipes

    Shared aroma: delta-dodecalactone (sweet, creamy).

  3. Parsley + buttertop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together28,563 recipes

    Shared aroma: trans-2-hexenal (green, leafy).

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

    Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).

  5. Egg + parsleytop 21% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together18,765 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 into a delicate structure that gives the omelette its body.
Butter
Conducts heat into the eggs and adds richness and flavor.
Cream
Adds moisture and softness, keeping the omelette tender as it sets.

The step that matters

Stirring the eggs until just set. Eggs turn firm and rubbery when overcooked, since proteins tighten and squeeze out water. Stirring quickly over high heat and stopping while the eggs are still slightly moist keeps the omelette tender.

Swap the parsley

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

  1. Nutmegfits better
  2. Parsleythe original
  3. Tarragonfits about as well
  4. Celeryfits less well

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