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Plain Omelet

A light, folded omelet made with egg yolks, whites, butter, and seasonings.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 6 ingredients
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Why it works: Egg and butter are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 17% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 118,967 recipes. Both carry decanal, which smells soap, orange peel. The science ↓

Plain Omelet

Ingredients

Directions

The book gives no oven temperature. The 400°F (200°C) in the steps was added when the recipe was transcribed, as a starting point.

Prepare the eggs

  1. Beat the yolks of the eggs until thick and light.

  2. Add salt and pepper to the yolks.

  3. Beat the egg whites until stiff and dry.

  4. Add hot water to the yolks, then gently fold in the egg whites.

Cook and finish

  1. Melt butter in a hot omelet pan.

  2. Pour the mixture into the pan and spread it evenly.

  3. Cook on the stovetop until well puffed, turning the pan carefully.

  4. Transfer to a 400°F (200°C) oven to finish cooking until firm to the touch.

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

    Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).

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

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

  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

Egg yolks
Beaten thick and light, they add richness and help bind the omelet.
Egg whites
Whipped stiff, they trap air that gives the omelet its light, puffed structure.
Hot water
Adds moisture and steam, helping the omelet puff as it cooks.
Butter
Adds fat and flavor and helps keep the omelet from sticking to the pan.

The step that matters

Fold the egg whites gently into the yolks. Whipped whites hold air bubbles that give the omelet its lift. Heavy or vigorous stirring knocks out that air, so the omelet cooks flat and dense instead of puffed.

“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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