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Oyster Omelet

A fried omelet made with oysters, eggs, butter, and sea salt.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 6 ingredients
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Why it works: Oyster and butter are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 12% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 8,184 recipes. Both carry 2,6-nonadienal, which smells cucumber, green. The science ↓

Oyster Omelet

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the oysters

  1. Remove the hard part from the oysters and mince the rest very fine.

Make the omelette

  1. Beat the yolks of 8 eggs and the whites of 4 eggs until very light.

  2. Mix in the minced oysters and season with coarse sea salt.

  3. Heat ½ cup of butter in a skillet until it melts and begins to boil, then skim the butter.

  4. Pour in the omelet mixture.

  5. Stir until it stiffens and fry until light brown on the bottom.

Finish and serve

  1. Turn the omelet onto a hot platter.

  2. If desired, brown the top with a red-hot shovel.

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. Oyster + buttertop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together8,184 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2,6-nonadienal (cucumber, green).

  2. Oyster + eggtop 14% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together4,103 recipes

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

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

    Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).

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

What each ingredient does

Oysters
Provide the main flavour and bulk of the omelette once minced into the egg.
Egg yolks
Add richness and fat, giving the omelette a tender, creamy texture.
Egg whites
Whipped to a light foam, they lift the mixture and help it set airy.
Butter
Fries the omelette and adds fat, browning the bottom and adding flavour.

The step that matters

Stir until it stiffens. Stirring while the eggs set keeps the curds small and tender; stopping too early leaves a runny middle, while over-cooking makes the eggs tough and dry.

“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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