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Cheap Omelette

A simple omelette made with eggs, onion, parsley, and fried in butter or dripping.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 4 ingredients
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Why it works: Onion and parsley are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 9% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 25,843 recipes. Both carry 2,4-decadienal, which smells seaweed. The science ↓

Cheap Omelette

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. Beat the yolks of the eggs in a bowl.

  2. Add the finely chopped onion and parsley to the eggs and mix well.

Cook

  1. Heat butter or dripping in a pan until boiling hot.

  2. Pour the egg mixture into the pan and cook until the underside is light brown.

  3. To brown the top, hold a hot spatula over the omelette.

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. Onion + parsleytop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together25,843 recipes

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

  2. Onion + buttertop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together42,912 recipes

    Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).

  3. Parsley + buttertop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together28,563 recipes

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

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

    Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).

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

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

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

What each ingredient does

Eggs
Set on heat to form the structure and body of the omelette.
Onion
Softens and sweetens as it cooks, adding flavour and moisture.
Parsley
Adds fresh, herbal aroma and colour.
Butter or dripping
Fat that conducts heat for even frying and helps the underside brown.

The step that matters

Heat the pan until boiling hot before pouring in the eggs. A very hot pan sets the egg quickly on contact, so the underside forms a firm layer before it can soak up fat. A cool pan lets the egg absorb grease and cook slowly, producing a greasy, tough omelette that sticks.

Swap the onion

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

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

Fit is the average pairing score against egg, parsley, 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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