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Spinach Omelet

A baked spinach omelet with beet, parsley, lemon thyme, leeks, and spices.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 13 ingredients
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Why it works: Pepper and parsley 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 ↓

Spinach Omelet

Oven, in the book's wordsA quick oven

Ingredients

Directions

The book says “a quick oven”. The 400°F (200°C) in the steps is the modern equivalent, not the book's own figure.

Make the batter

  1. Mix the flour with the cold milk until smooth.

  2. Add the melted butter, pepper, salt, nutmeg, and beaten egg yolks, then mix the mixture well.

  3. Combine the spinach, beet, parsley, lemon thyme, and leeks in a separate bowl, then stir the chopped vegetables into the batter.

Bake

  1. Preheat the oven to 400°F (200°C).

  2. Butter a pie dish.

  3. Whisk the egg whites until firm.

  4. Gently fold the egg whites into the batter.

  5. Pour the mixture into the buttered dish.

  6. Bake for 20 minutes.

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. Pepper + parsleytop 2% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together34,122 recipes

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

  2. Nutmeg + parsleytop 3% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together5,062 recipes

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

  3. Nutmeg + spinachtop 4% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together603 recipes

    Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).

  4. Spinach + parsleytop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together1,025 recipes

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

  5. Pepper + spinachtop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together3,400 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

Egg yolks
Add richness and help bind the batter together as it sets.
Egg whites
Whisked to firm peaks, they lighten the batter and help it rise in the oven.
Flour
Thickens the milk and gives the batter structure so it holds after baking.
Butter
Adds fat and rich flavour to the batter and greases the dish.
Spinach
Adds leafy vegetable body and moisture, colouring the omelet green.

The step that matters

Gently fold the egg whites into the batter. Whisked egg whites trap air that gives the omelet its lift. Stirring them vigorously knocks out that air, so the result bakes flatter and denser.

Swap the spinach

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

  1. Shallotfits about as well
  2. Chivefits about as well
  3. Potatofits about as well
  4. Spinachthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against flour, milk, butter, pepper, nutmeg, egg, parsley. 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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