Why it works: Egg and cheese are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 28% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 6,253 recipes. Both carry 2-nonenal, which smells fatty, green. The science ↓
Cheese Omelet
Ingredients
Directions
The book gives no oven temperature. The 400°F (200°C) in the steps was added when the recipe was transcribed, as a starting point.
Make the mixture
Melt the cheese in the oven.
Beat the egg yolks until very stiff, then add to the melted cheese.
Beat the egg whites until very stiff and fold them into the mixture.
Bake
Bake in a 400°F (200°C) oven for 20 minutes or until light brown.
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.
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Egg + cheesetop 28% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together6,253 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).
Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs
What each ingredient does
- Eggs
- Whipped whites trap air for lift, and the yolks set to give the omelet its structure.
- Cheese
- Adds fat and rich flavor, and it melts and firms as it cools, giving body to the dish.
The step that matters
Fold the whipped egg whites into the mixture. Whites beaten until very stiff hold the air that makes the omelet rise. Folding gently keeps that air in, while stirring hard deflates the mixture and leaves a dense result.
“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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