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Blazing Omelettes

A flambé omelette flavored with sugar and rum or brandy, ignited before serving.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 3 ingredients
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Why it works: Sugar and rum are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 14% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 2,908 recipes. Both carry beta-damascenone, which smells apple, rose. The science ↓

Blazing Omelettes

Ingredients

Directions

Make the omelette

  1. Beat the eggs until well mixed.

  2. Cook the omelette in a warm dish until set.

Flambé and serve

  1. Sprinkle sugar on top.

  2. Use a red-hot poker to create fanciful shapes on the surface.

  3. Pour the rum or brandy over the omelette.

  4. Ignite with a match and serve immediately, spooning the burning liquor over the omelette as it burns.

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. Sugar + rumtop 14% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together2,908 recipes

    Shared aroma: beta-damascenone (apple, rose).

  2. Egg + sugartop 21% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together122,807 recipes

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

  3. Egg + rumtop 27% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,589 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 into a structure that holds the omelette together and gives it body.
Sugar
Caramelises slightly under the flame, adding sweetness and a browned surface.
Rum or brandy
Alcohol ignites to give a brief flame and a toasty, aromatic flavour.

The step that matters

Ignite with a match and serve immediately. Alcohol vapour must be lit to burn; the flame is brief and the omelette cools quickly once it leaves the heat, so it should be served right away while the liquor is still burning.

“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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