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Beef Omelet

A baked omelet made with chopped beef, suet, eggs, and Boston crackers.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 7 ingredients
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Why it works: Pepper and sage match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 3% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 5,388 recipes. Both carry beta-phellandrene, which smells minty, terpene. The science ↓

Beef 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. The book gives no cooking times either; the times in the steps were added in transcription, so check for doneness rather than trusting the clock.

Prepare

  1. Preheat the oven to 350°F (175°C).

Mix

  1. In a bowl, combine the chopped beefsteak, suet, salt, pepper, and sage.

  2. Add the eggs and mix well.

  3. Fold in the rolled Boston crackers.

Bake and serve

  1. Shape the mixture into a roll and place it in a baking dish.

  2. Bake for about 30-40 minutes or until cooked through.

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. Pepper + sagetop 3% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together5,388 recipes

    Shared aroma: beta-phellandrene (minty, terpene).

  2. Sage + eggtop 32% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together2,100 recipes

    Shared aroma: 1-octen-3-ol (mushroom, earthy).

  3. Pepper + eggtop 33% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together50,580 recipes

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

Pepper and egg 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

Beefsteak
Forms the main body of the dish and provides the meaty flavour and substance.
Suet
Adds fat that keeps the mixture moist and rich as it cooks.
Eggs
Bind the mixture together and help it set firm when baked.
Boston crackers
Absorb juices and add body, helping the roll hold its shape.

The step that matters

Baking until cooked through. Ground or chopped meat must reach a fully cooked temperature throughout the roll. Pulling it too early leaves the centre pink and unsafe, while overbaking can dry it out. The eggs and crackers also need heat to set properly.

Swap the sage

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

  1. Parsleyfits better
  2. Dillfits better
  3. Tarragonfits better
  4. Sagethe original

Fit is the average pairing score against pepper, egg. 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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