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Potato Omelet

A fried egg dish with mashed potatoes, milk, and seasonings.

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 ↓

Potato Omelet

Ingredients

Directions

Make the batter

  1. Beat the egg whites and yolks separately.

  2. Combine the yolks with milk, salt, pepper, and mashed potatoes.

  3. Gently fold in the beaten egg whites.

Cook the omelet

  1. Butter a frying pan and heat it.

  2. Pour the mixture into the hot pan.

  3. When the omelet is set, fold it in half and brown it.

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

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

  3. Milk + potatotop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together3,611 recipes

    Shared aroma: (e,z)-2,6-nonadienal (cucumber, melon).

  4. Potato + buttertop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together6,456 recipes

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

  5. Egg + buttertop 17% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together118,967 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
Whipped whites trap air for lift, while the yolks enrich the batter and help it set.
Milk
Adds moisture and tenderness, keeping the omelet soft rather than dry.
Cold mashed potatoes
Starch adds body and a soft, creamy texture to the batter.
Butter
Adds richness and helps the omelet brown in the hot pan.

The step that matters

Gently fold in the beaten egg whites. Beaten whites hold air bubbles that give the omelet its lift. Stirring or deflating them vigorously knocks out that air, leaving a dense, flat result.

Swap the potato

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

  1. Capsicumfits about as well
  2. Potatothe original
  3. Asparagusfits about as well
  4. Chivefits less well

Fit is the average pairing score against egg, milk, pepper, 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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