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Baked Omelette Aux Fines Herbes

A baked omelette made with eggs, milk, corn starch, herbs, onion, butter, salt, and pepper.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 8 ingredients
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Why it works: Milk and butter are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 7% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 81,283 recipes. Both carry (z)-4-heptenal, which smells biscuit, cream. The science ↓

Baked Omelette Aux Fines Herbes

Ingredients

Directions

The book gives no oven temperature. The 400°F (200°C) in the steps was added when the recipe was transcribed, as a starting point.

Make the batter

  1. Beat the egg yolks until smooth, then whisk in the milk.

  2. Gently fold in the whipped egg whites.

Cook the omelette

  1. Preheat the oven to 400°F (200°C).

  2. In a shallow baking dish, melt the butter and add the chopped herbs and minced onion.

  3. Place the dish in the oven until it begins to simmer.

  4. Pour the omelette mixture into the dish and bake until puffed and lightly browned.

Serve

  1. Run a sharp knife around the edge and invert onto a hot platter, or serve directly from the dish.

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

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

  2. Milk + corntop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together6,955 recipes

    Shared aroma: hexanal (green, grassy).

  3. Corn + peppertop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together5,324 recipes

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

  4. Pepper + oniontop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together68,474 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).

  5. Corn + oniontop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together4,205 recipes

    Shared aroma: hexanal (green, grassy).

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

What each ingredient does

Eggs
Whites trap air for lift, and the proteins set to give the omelette its structure.
Milk
Adds moisture and keeps the set custard-like texture tender rather than rubbery.
Butter
Adds fat for richness and helps the surface brown lightly in the hot dish.
Corn starch
Helps stabilize the egg and milk mixture so it stays soft and does not weep as it sets.
Herbs
Provide fresh aroma and flavor that carries through the eggs.
Onion
Softens in the hot butter, adding mild sweetness and savory depth.

The step that matters

Bake until just set. Egg proteins tighten as they heat, and overbaking squeezes out moisture and makes the omelette tough and dry. Remove it once it is puffed and lightly browned, while the centre still looks slightly soft.

Swap the onion

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

  1. Capsicumfits better
  2. Potatofits better
  3. Asparagusfits better
  4. Onionthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against egg, milk, corn, 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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