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Breakfast

Plain Omelet

A simple omelet made with eggs, water, butter, and seasoning.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 6 ingredients
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Why it works: Egg and butter are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 17% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 118,967 recipes. Both carry decanal, which smells soap, orange peel. The science ↓

Plain Omelet

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the eggs

  1. Break the eggs into a bowl and beat with a fork until well mixed.

  2. Add boiling water and beat for a moment until combined.

  3. Add a lump of butter and mix well.

Cook the omelet

  1. Heat clarified butter in an omelet pan until hot.

  2. Pour in the egg mixture and shake the pan over the heat.

  3. As the omelet cooks, lift the edges with a skimmer spoon.

  4. Dust with salt and pepper as it sets.

  5. Gently roll the omelet into an oblong shape.

Serve

  1. Slide it onto a hot dish and pour melted butter over it.

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

    Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).

  2. Butter + peppertop 21% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together85,593 recipes

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

  3. Egg + peppertop 33% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together50,580 recipes

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

Egg and pepper barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 50,580 recipes: they work on texture and structure more than aroma.

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

What each ingredient does

Eggs
Set into the structure of the omelet as they cook, forming its body.
Boiling water
Adds steam as it heats, helping the omelet puff and stay tender.
Clarified butter
Fat for the pan that keeps the eggs from sticking and adds richness.

The step that matters

Shaking the pan over the heat while the eggs set. Constant shaking keeps the egg moving so it sets in soft, even curds rather than sticking or browning unevenly. Lifting the edges lets uncooked egg flow underneath.

“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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