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Baked Omelet

A baked egg custard made with eggs, milk, corn starch, and seasonings.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 6 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 ↓

Baked Omelet

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

  1. Preheat the oven to 350°F (175°C).

  2. Thoroughly butter a broad baking pan.

Make the mixture

  1. In a large bowl, combine the beaten eggs and milk.

  2. Stir in the corn starch, salt, and pepper.

  3. Add chopped parsley if desired.

Bake and serve

  1. Pour the egg mixture into the pan.

  2. Bake for 30 minutes or until set.

  3. Turn out onto a platter to serve.

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

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

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

    Shared aroma: hexanal (green, grassy).

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

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

  5. Corn + parsleytop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together943 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 and firm up as they cook, giving the omelette its structure.
Milk
Adds moisture and softness, so the custard-like mixture stays tender when baked.
Corn starch
Thickens the egg and milk mixture and helps keep it from weeping or turning rubbery.

The step that matters

Bake until just set. Eggs turn from tender to tough and watery when overbaked, because proteins tighten past the point of setting. Pull the omelette once the centre no longer jiggles.

Swap the parsley

The recipe marks parsley as optional. How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (egg, milk, corn, pepper, butter):

  1. Nutmegfits about as well
  2. Cinnamonfits about as well
  3. Parsleythe original
  4. Tarragonfits about as well

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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