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Cheese Omelet

A quick fried egg mixture with grated cheese, butter, salt, and pepper.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 5 ingredients
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Why it works: Cheese and butter are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 8% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 7,962 recipes. Both carry delta-dodecalactone, which smells sweet, creamy. The science ↓

Cheese 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. Use a small frying pan for best results.

  2. Break the eggs into a bowl and beat them well, one at a time.

  3. Add grated cheese, adjusting the amount based on the number of eggs.

  4. Season with salt and pepper to taste.

Cook

  1. Melt butter in the frying pan over medium heat.

  2. Pour the egg mixture into the pan and cook until the omelet is firm, about 5 to 7 minutes.

Finish and serve

  1. Fold the omelet in half and slide it onto a hot dish.

  2. Place the dish in a preheated oven at 350°F (175°C) for 1 minute before serving.

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. Cheese + buttertop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together7,962 recipes

    Shared aroma: delta-dodecalactone (sweet, creamy).

  2. Egg + buttertop 17% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together118,967 recipes

    Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).

  3. Cheese + peppertop 18% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together7,861 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).

  4. Pepper + buttertop 21% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together85,593 recipes

    Shared aroma: trans-2-nonenal (cardboard, fatty).

  5. Egg + cheesetop 28% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked 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
Set into the omelet's structure as their proteins coagulate with heat.
Grated cheese
Adds fat and savory flavor, and melts into a creamy texture within the eggs.
Butter
Adds richness and flavor and helps keep the omelet from sticking to the pan.

The step that matters

Cook over medium heat until just firm. Egg proteins coagulate and toughen when overheated, making the omelet rubbery and dry. Gentle medium heat keeps it tender and prevents the butter from scorching.

“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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