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Cheese Omelette

A fluffy omelette made with eggs, milk, butter, cheese, and seasoned with salt and pepper.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 7 ingredients
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Why it works: Pepper and parsley 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 ↓

Cheese Omelette

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. Separate the yolks and whites of the eggs.

  2. Beat the yolks and whites separately, then season with salt and pepper.

  3. In a large frying pan, melt the butter over low heat.

Make the omelette

  1. Combine the milk with the beaten yolks and 2 whole eggs, then pour into the pan.

  2. Cook slowly, watching carefully until it is almost set.

  3. Sprinkle the grated cheese on top, then pour the beaten whites over everything.

  4. Fold the omelette and slide it onto a warm platter.

  5. Garnish with minced parsley and 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. Pepper + parsleytop 2% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together34,122 recipes

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

  2. Butter + milktop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together81,283 recipes

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

  3. Butter + cheesetop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together7,962 recipes

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

  4. Milk + cheesetop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together4,426 recipes

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

  5. Butter + parsleytop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together28,563 recipes

    Shared aroma: trans-2-hexenal (green, leafy).

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

What each ingredient does

Eggs
Whites whipped separately and folded in give the omelette its light, airy structure as they set.
Butter
Fat that coats the pan, adds richness and helps keep the omelette from sticking.
Milk
Adds moisture to the yolk mixture, keeping the omelette tender rather than dry.
Grated cheese
Melts into the omelette, adding savoury flavour and richness to the filling.

The step that matters

Cook slowly over low heat until almost set. High heat toughens and over-sets egg proteins, making the omelette rubbery and browned on the outside while still runny inside. Gentle heat keeps it tender and lets it set evenly.

Swap the parsley

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

  1. Nutmegfits about as well
  2. Parsleythe original
  3. Thymefits about as well
  4. Cinnamonfits about as well

Fit is the average pairing score against egg, butter, milk, cheese, pepper. 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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