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Omelette Meringue

A light omelette topped with a meringue layer, finished in the oven.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 7 ingredients
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Why it works: Lemon and butter are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 16% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 41,227 recipes. Both carry 3-hexenal, which smells apple, fruity. The science ↓

Omelette Meringue

Ingredients

Directions

The book gives no oven temperature. The 350°F (175°C) in the steps was added when the recipe was transcribed, as a starting point.

Prepare the omelette

  1. Beat 8 egg yolks and 4 egg whites until light.

  2. Add salt, lemon juice, and 1 tablespoon of powdered sugar.

  3. Melt 1 tablespoon of butter in a frying pan, coating the bottom.

  4. Pour in the egg mixture.

  5. Shake and loosen the edges with a spatula.

  6. When the edges are set, place a spoonful of jam or jelly on one side.

  7. Fold the omelette.

  8. Transfer to a stone-china dish.

Make the meringue and bake

  1. Beat the remaining egg whites with the remaining sugar and lemon peel to make the meringue.

  2. Heap the meringue on top of the omelette.

  3. Place the dish in a 350°F (175°C) oven to set and brown.

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. Lemon + buttertop 16% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together41,227 recipes

    Shared aroma: 3-hexenal (apple, fruity).

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

    Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).

  3. Sugar + buttertop 17% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together98,233 recipes

    Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).

  4. Lemon + sugartop 18% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together53,532 recipes

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

  5. Egg + lemontop 19% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together44,316 recipes

    Shared aroma: (e,e)-2,4-decadienal (fatty, deep fried).

Lemon and sugar barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 53,532 recipes: they work on texture and structure more than aroma.

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

What each ingredient does

Eggs
Egg yolks and whites set into the omelette and, beaten, give the meringue its airy structure.
Powdered sugar
Sweetens the omelette and the meringue, and helps stabilise the whipped egg whites.
Butter
Coats the pan so the omelette releases easily and browns lightly on the base.
Lemon juice
Adds acidity that brightens the eggs and helps stabilise the whipped whites.

The step that matters

Beat the remaining egg whites with the remaining sugar and lemon peel to make the meringue.. Whites must be beaten until they hold stiff peaks; under-beaten or greasy whites collapse and weep in the oven. Adding sugar gradually helps the foam stay stable.

Swap the lemon

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

  1. Vanillafits better
  2. Lemonthe original
  3. Raisinfits about as well
  4. Figfits about as well

Fit is the average pairing score against egg, sugar, 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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