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Anchovy Omelette

A quick omelette flavored with anchovies and anchovy essence.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 5 ingredients
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Why it works: Egg and anchovy are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 12% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 2,330 recipes. Both carry decanal, which smells soap, orange peel. The science ↓

Anchovy Omelette

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. Season the yolks of the eggs with salt, pepper, and anchovy essence.

  2. Cut the anchovies into small pieces.

  3. Beat the egg whites to stiff peaks and gently fold them into the yolks.

  4. Heat a well-buttered saucepan over medium heat.

Cook and finish

  1. Pour the egg mixture into the saucepan and add the anchovy pieces.

  2. Cook until browned on the bottom, then transfer to a 350°F (175°C) oven to set.

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. Egg + anchovytop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together2,330 recipes

    Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).

  2. Pepper + anchovytop 17% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together3,232 recipes

    Shared aroma: eucalyptol (eucalyptus, herbal).

  3. Egg + peppertop 33% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together50,580 recipes

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

Egg and pepper barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 50,580 recipes: they work on texture and structure more than aroma.

Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs

What each ingredient does

Eggs
Whipped whites give the omelette its light, airy structure, while the yolks add richness and set into a tender body.
Anchovies
Provide a salty, savory depth of flavor that carries through the whole omelette.
Anchovy essence
Intensifies the anchovy flavor evenly through the egg mixture.

The step that matters

Folding the whites into the yolks. Stiff whites hold air that makes the omelette rise and stay light. Folding gently rather than stirring keeps that air from collapsing, so the omelette stays fluffy when it sets.

“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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