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Omelet of Herbs

A quick omelet made with mixed herbs and eggs, cooked in butter.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 5 ingredients
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Why it works: Sorrel and chervil match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 247 recipes. Both carry coumarin, which smells sweet, hay. The science ↓

Omelet of Herbs

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the herbs and eggs

  1. Mince the parsley, onion, chives, shallots, sorrel, and chervil finely.

  2. Beat the eggs in a bowl and stir in the minced herbs.

Cook and serve

  1. Heat butter in a skillet over medium heat.

  2. Pour the egg and herb mixture into the skillet and cook until set.

  3. Fold the omelet and serve hot.

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. Sorrel + cherviltop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together247 recipes

    Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).

  2. Chive + cherviltop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together370 recipes

    Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).

  3. Shallot + cherviltop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together266 recipes

    Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).

  4. Shallot + sorreltop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together38 recipes

    Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).

  5. Chive + shallottop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together450 recipes

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

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

What each ingredient does

Eggs
Set into a tender structure that holds the omelet together when cooked.
Parsley, onion, chives, shallots
Add fresh herbal aroma and savory flavor to the egg mixture.
Sorrel
Adds a bright, lemony acidity that balances the richness of the eggs.
Chervil
Contributes a delicate, aniseed-like aroma to the egg mixture.
Butter
Adds fat for frying, giving flavor and helping the omelet brown lightly and release from the pan.

The step that matters

Pour the egg and herb mixture into the skillet and cook until set. Egg proteins set with heat, so cooking over high heat or too long makes the omelet tough and rubbery. Medium heat lets the eggs set gently and stay tender.

Swap the onion

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (parsley, chive, shallot, sorrel, chervil, egg, butter):

  1. Leekfits better
  2. Lettucefits better
  3. Welsh onionfits better
  4. Onionthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against parsley, chive, shallot, sorrel, chervil, egg, butter. 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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