Why it works: Apple and asparagus work together. They rank in the top 17% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 80 recipes. Both carry 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine, which smells earthy, pea. The science ↓
Fancy Omelet
Ingredients
Directions
Make the omelets
Crack three or four eggs into a bowl and beat them well.
For the plain omelet, pour the eggs into a hot skillet and cook until set.
For the herb omelet, add chopped herbs to the beaten eggs before cooking.
For the apple omelet, add sliced apples to the beaten eggs before cooking.
For the asparagus or sorrel omelet, add cooked asparagus or sorrel to the beaten eggs before cooking.
Serve
Serve all omelets on the same dish, layering them one over the other.
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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Apple + asparagustop 17% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together80 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).
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Egg + asparagustop 17% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together1,338 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).
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Egg + appletop 30% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together7,461 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
- Beaten eggs set in the hot skillet to form the body of each omelet.
- Herbs
- Add aroma and freshness to the herb omelet.
- Apples
- Add sweetness and a fruity flavor to the apple omelet.
- Asparagus or sorrel
- Adds vegetable flavor and texture to the omelet; sorrel adds a tangy, acidic note.
Swap the apple
How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (egg, asparagus):
- Lemonfits better
- Avocadofits better
- Pumpkinfits better
- Applethe original
Fit is the average pairing score against egg, asparagus. 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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