Skip to main content
Main

Asparagus Omelet

A quick omelet made with boiled asparagus and eggs, cooked in butter.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 4 ingredients
Jump to recipe ↓

Why it works: Asparagus and egg are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 17% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 1,338 recipes. Both carry 2-nonenal, which smells fatty, green. The science ↓

Asparagus Omelet

Oven, in the book's wordsA hot oven

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the asparagus

  1. Boil the asparagus with a little salt until half-cooked, then cut the eatable part into small pieces.

Make the omelette

  1. Beat the eggs in a bowl and mix in the asparagus.

  2. Melt butter in a frying pan over medium heat.

  3. Pour the egg and asparagus mixture into the pan and cook until set.

  4. Fold the omelette and serve warm.

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. Asparagus + eggtop 17% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,338 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).

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

    Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).

  3. Asparagus + buttertop 17% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together2,026 recipes

    Shared aroma: trans-2-nonenal (cardboard, fatty).

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

What each ingredient does

Eggs
Set into a firm, tender structure as they cook, holding the omelette together.
Asparagus
Adds bite and a vegetal flavour, and its pieces give the omelette texture.
Butter
Adds richness and helps keep the omelette from sticking to the pan while it browns.

The step that matters

Pour the egg and asparagus mixture into the pan and cook until set. Eggs turn from liquid to solid as their proteins coagulate with heat. Cooking over medium heat until just set keeps the omelette tender and prevents it from becoming rubbery or dry.

Swap the asparagus

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

  1. Asparagusthe original
  2. Chivefits about as well
  3. Leekfits about as well
  4. Potatofits less well

Fit is the average pairing score against 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.

You might also like

Asparagus SoupAsparagus Soup179 recipesAsparagus SaladAsparagus Salad77 recipesCream of AsparagusCream of Asparagus38 recipesBoiled AsparagusBoiled Asparagus27 recipes