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Omelet

A cooked egg mixture with ham, onion, parsley, and butter.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 7 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 ↓

Omelet

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the eggs

  1. Beat the yolks of the eggs until light.

  2. Beat the egg whites to a stiff froth with a little salt.

  3. Mix the yolks and whites together evenly.

Make the omelet

  1. Add the milk, chopped ham, onion, and parsley to the egg mixture.

  2. Melt the butter in a saucepan over medium heat.

  3. Pour the egg mixture into the pan and cook until the bottom is brown.

  4. Use a pancake turner to roll the omelet.

  5. Serve as one large omelet or divide into three small ones.

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

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

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

    Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).

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

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

  5. Ham + buttertop 16% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together5,475 recipes

    Shared aroma: trans-2-decenal (waxy, orange).

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

What each ingredient does

Eggs
Whites whipped to a stiff froth trap air, giving the omelet its light, lofty structure.
Milk
Adds moisture, so the eggs stay tender rather than dry and rubbery when cooked.
Butter
Fat coats the pan so the omelet releases easily and browns the bottom lightly.
Chopped boiled ham
Adds savoury flavour and substance to the filling.

The step that matters

Cooking the bottom until brown. Egg proteins set as they heat, so cooking too long or too hot makes the omelet tough and rubbery. Heat should be moderate so the base sets gently while the surface stays tender.

Swap the onion

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

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

Fit is the average pairing score against egg, milk, ham, 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.

More omelet recipes

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