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Omelette Au Jambon

A quick ham omelette made with milk, flour, ham, onion, parsley, chives, and butter.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 8 ingredients
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Why it works: Parsley and pepper 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 ↓

Omelette Au Jambon

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the mixture

  1. Beat the egg yolks until creamy.

  2. Add milk, flour, ham, onion, parsley, chives, salt, and pepper. Mix until smooth.

  3. Gently fold in the beaten egg whites.

Cook

  1. Melt butter in a medium-sized pan over medium heat.

  2. Pour the 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. Parsley + peppertop 2% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together34,122 recipes

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

  2. Parsley + chivetop 3% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together2,150 recipes

    Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).

  3. Onion + chivetop 3% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together1,907 recipes

    Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).

  4. Milk + buttertop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together81,283 recipes

    Shared aroma: (z)-4-heptenal (biscuit, cream).

  5. Flour + chivetop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together1,168 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

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

What each ingredient does

Egg yolks (in the method)
Enrich the mixture with richness and help it become smooth and creamy.
Egg whites (in the method)
Whipped and folded in to lighten the omelette and give it a tender, airy texture.
Milk
Adds moisture and softness to the omelette as it cooks.
Flour
Helps thicken the mixture slightly so it holds together and stays tender.
Butter
Greases the pan and adds flavour and browning to the omelette's surface.

The step that matters

Fold in the beaten egg whites gently. Egg whites hold air when whipped, and that air gives the omelette its lightness. Stirring or deflating them vigorously knocks the air out, leaving the omelette dense and flat.

Swap the onion

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

  1. Shallotfits better
  2. Leekfits better
  3. Potatofits better
  4. Onionthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against milk, flour, ham, parsley, chive, pepper, 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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