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French, Omelet

A light French omelet made with eggs, butter, lemon juice, sugar, water, and salt.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 6 ingredients
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Why it works: Butter and lemon are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 16% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 41,227 recipes. Both carry 3-hexenal, which smells apple, fruity. The science ↓

French, Omelet

Ingredients

Directions

Make the batter

  1. Beat the egg yolks until very light.

  2. Add the lemon juice, sugar, water, and salt to the yolks and mix well.

  3. Fold the well-beaten egg whites into the yolk mixture.

Cook the omelet

  1. Melt the butter in a saucepan.

  2. Brush the sides of the pan with butter.

  3. Cook the omelet slowly until brown, moving the pan continuously.

  4. Cut the edge with a knife when ready to fold.

Serve

  1. Serve on an oblong dish garnished with parsley and small sausage balls.

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. Butter + lemontop 16% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together41,227 recipes

    Shared aroma: 3-hexenal (apple, fruity).

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

    Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).

  3. Butter + sugartop 17% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together98,233 recipes

    Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).

  4. Lemon + sugartop 18% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together53,532 recipes

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

  5. Egg + lemontop 19% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together44,316 recipes

    Shared aroma: (e,e)-2,4-decadienal (fatty, deep fried).

Lemon and sugar barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 53,532 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
Egg whites trap air for lightness, while yolks add richness and help set the omelet.
Butter
Adds fat for flavor and browning, and helps keep the omelet from sticking to the pan.
Lemon juice
Adds acidity that brightens flavor and helps keep the beaten egg whites stable.
Sugar
Adds a little sweetness that balances the lemon and the savory eggs.

The step that matters

Fold the well-beaten egg whites into the yolk mixture.. Beaten egg whites hold air that makes the omelet light. Stirring or folding too hard deflates that foam, leaving the omelet flat and dense.

Swap the lemon

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (egg, butter, sugar):

  1. Vanillafits better
  2. Lemonthe original
  3. Raisinfits about as well
  4. Figfits about as well

Fit is the average pairing score against egg, butter, sugar. 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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