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Savoury Omelet

A quick omelet made with eggs, parsley, thyme, salt, pepper, and butter.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 5 ingredients
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Why it works: Parsley and thyme match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 9,057 recipes. Both carry cuminaldehyde, which smells Spicy, cumin. The science ↓

Savoury Omelet

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the filling

  1. Beat the eggs in a bowl.

  2. Add parsley, thyme, salt, and pepper, along with half the butter cut into pieces.

Cook and serve

  1. Melt the remaining butter in a pan over medium heat until it sizzles.

  2. Pour the egg mixture into the pan and stir gently with a fork until it begins to set.

  3. When lightly set, fold in the edges with a knife.

  4. Turn the omelet onto a hot 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 + thymetop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together9,057 recipes

    Shared aroma: cuminaldehyde (Spicy, cumin).

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

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

  3. Thyme + peppertop 4% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together11,585 recipes

    Shared aroma: beta-phellandrene (minty, terpene).

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

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

  5. Thyme + buttertop 17% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together7,758 recipes

    Shared aroma: eucalyptol (eucalyptus, herbal).

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 forms the body of the omelet.
Butter
Adds richness and carries flavour, and helps keep the omelet from sticking to the pan.
Parsley
Contributes fresh, green aroma and a light herbal flavour to the eggs.
Thyme
Adds earthy, savoury aroma that complements the eggs.

The step that matters

Stir gently until the eggs just begin to set. Egg proteins firm up with heat, so stirring gently while they are still partly liquid forms soft curds. Overcooking makes the omelet tough and dry, so it should be removed while still lightly set.

Swap the thyme

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

  1. Tarragonfits about as well
  2. Thymethe original
  3. Dillfits about as well
  4. Nutmegfits about as well

Fit is the average pairing score against egg, parsley, 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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