Why it works: Butter and milk 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 ↓
Yosemite 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.
Prepare
Melt the butter in a tin dish.
Pour all but the settled salt into a frying pan, coating the bottom.
Beat the eggs and mix in the sweet milk.
Cook and bake
Pour the egg mixture into the hot pan and cook until the edges are set.
Transfer the pan to a 400°F (200°C) oven and bake until the omelet rises in the middle, about 5 minutes.
Finish and serve
Sprinkle with salt and pepper, fold, and serve immediately.
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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Butter + milktop 7% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together81,283 recipes
Shared aroma: (z)-4-heptenal (biscuit, cream).
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Butter + eggtop 17% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together118,967 recipes
Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).
-
Egg + milktop 18% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together88,785 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).
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Butter + peppertop 21% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together85,593 recipes
Shared aroma: trans-2-nonenal (cardboard, fatty).
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Milk + peppertop 22% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together26,984 recipes
Shared aroma: ethyl 2-methylbutyrate (fruity, apple).
Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs
What each ingredient does
- Eggs
- Set by heat to form the omelet's structure and help it rise and hold together.
- Sweet milk
- Adds moisture and dilutes the eggs, keeping the omelet tender rather than dense.
- Butter
- Adds fat and richness and helps keep the omelet from sticking to the pan.
The step that matters
Bake until just set. Egg proteins set as they heat, and over-baking tightens them further, making the omelet dry, tough and rubbery. Remove it once the middle has risen and set, then serve it right away before it deflates and firms up.
“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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