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Omelet of Herbs

A quick omelet made with mixed herbs and eggs, cooked in butter.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 4 ingredients
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Why it works: Sorrel and chervil match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 247 recipes. Both carry coumarin, which smells sweet, hay. The science ↓

Omelet of Herbs

Ingredients

Directions

Make the omelet

  1. Beat the eggs in a bowl until well mixed.

  2. Add the minced herbs and vegetables to the beaten eggs and stir to combine.

  3. Heat butter in a skillet over medium heat.

  4. Pour the egg mixture into the skillet and cook until set, folding the omelet in half.

Serve

  1. 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. Sorrel + cherviltop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together247 recipes

    Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).

  2. Chive + cherviltop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together370 recipes

    Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).

  3. Shallot + cherviltop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together266 recipes

    Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).

  4. Shallot + sorreltop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together38 recipes

    Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).

  5. Chive + shallottop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together450 recipes

    Shared aroma: 1-octen-3-ol (mushroom, earthy).

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

What each ingredient does

Eggs
Set into the soft structure of the omelet as their proteins coagulate with gentle heat.
Butter
Adds fat for frying, carrying flavor and helping keep the omelet from sticking.
Mixed herbs
Contribute fresh aroma and flavor that spread through the beaten eggs.

The step that matters

Cook the omelet until just set over medium heat. Egg proteins coagulate as they heat, so cooking until just set keeps the omelet tender. Overcooking or excessive heat tightens the proteins, squeezing out moisture and making the eggs tough and dry.

Swap the onion

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (parsley, chive, shallot, sorrel, chervil, egg, butter):

  1. Leekfits better
  2. Lettucefits better
  3. Welsh onionfits better
  4. Onionthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against parsley, chive, shallot, sorrel, chervil, egg, 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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