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Oyster Omelet

A savory omelet made with fresh oysters, eggs, cream, butter, salt, and pepper.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 6 ingredients
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Why it works: Cream and butter are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 8% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 41,516 recipes. Both carry delta-dodecalactone, which smells sweet, creamy. The science ↓

Oyster Omelet

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. Sprinkle salt on chopped oysters and let them sit in their own liquor for 30 minutes.

  2. Beat egg yolks until smooth and egg whites until stiff.

Make the omelet

  1. Mix cream, pepper, and salt into the yolks, then gently fold in the egg whites.

  2. Melt butter in a hot frying pan.

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

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. Cream + buttertop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together41,516 recipes

    Shared aroma: delta-dodecalactone (sweet, creamy).

  2. Oyster + buttertop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together8,184 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2,6-nonadienal (cucumber, green).

  3. Oyster + eggtop 14% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together4,103 recipes

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

  4. Oyster + creamtop 17% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together2,886 recipes

    Shared aroma: 1-octen-3-one (mushroom, metallic).

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

    Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).

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

What each ingredient does

Eggs
Whipped whites give the omelet its light, airy structure, while the yolks add richness and set into a tender body.
Butter
Melted in a hot pan, it adds fat and flavor and helps keep the omelet from sticking.
Oysters
Their briny flavor seasons the omelet, and they are chopped so the flavor spreads through the eggs.
Rich sweet cream
Adds moisture and softness, giving the omelet a more tender, creamy texture.

The step that matters

Folding in the egg whites. Whites hold air only when whipped stiff, and deflating them by stirring rather than gently folding loses the lift that makes the omelet light. Fold slowly with a wide motion so the foam stays intact.

“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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