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Omelette Aux Fines Herbes

A French omelette flavored with parsley, salt, pepper, and butter.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 5 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 ↓

Omelette Aux Fines Herbes

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the eggs

  1. Break the eggs into a clean bowl.

  2. Add salt, pepper, and minced parsley.

  3. Whip the mixture with a fork for one minute.

Cook the omelette

  1. Melt the butter in a clean pan over high heat without browning it.

  2. Pour the egg mixture into the hot pan and toss gently with a fork.

  3. When the eggs begin to set, shake the pan and turn it.

  4. Fold the sides of the omelette to form an oval shape.

  5. Lightly color the top and then slide it onto a plate to 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. Parsley + buttertop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together28,563 recipes

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

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

    Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).

  4. Egg + parsleytop 21% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together18,765 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2,4-decadienal (seaweed).

  5. Pepper + buttertop 21% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together85,593 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 tender structure when heated, forming the body of the omelette.
Butter
Adds richness and carries heat into the pan, helping the eggs release and stay tender.
Minced parsley
Adds fresh, herbal aroma and a little color to the eggs.

The step that matters

Shake and turn the pan as the eggs set. Once the eggs begin to set, moving the pan keeps the curds loose and prevents sticking or overcooking the base. Waiting too long leaves the omelette dry and tough, while stopping too early leaves it runny.

“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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