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French Bean Omelet

A French bean omelet made with boiled beans, eggs, wheatmeal, milk, cheese, and seasoning, fried in butter or oil.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 8 ingredients
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Why it works: Milk and butter are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 7% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 81,283 recipes. Both carry (z)-4-heptenal, which smells biscuit, cream. The science ↓

French Bean Omelet

Ingredients

Directions

Make the batter

  1. Smooth the wheatmeal with the milk.

  2. Beat the eggs and add them to the mixture along with the cheese and seasoning.

  3. Mix thoroughly with the beans.

Cook

  1. Fry the omelet in boiling vegetable butter or oil.

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. Milk + buttertop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together81,283 recipes

    Shared aroma: (z)-4-heptenal (biscuit, cream).

  2. Cheese + buttertop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together7,962 recipes

    Shared aroma: delta-dodecalactone (sweet, creamy).

  3. Milk + cheesetop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together4,426 recipes

    Shared aroma: delta-dodecalactone (sweet, creamy).

  4. Beans + peppertop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together4,733 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).

  5. Beans + cheesetop 14% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together741 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).

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

What each ingredient does

Eggs
Set to form the structure and body of the omelet as they cook.
Allinson fine wheatmeal
Thickens the milk mixture and gives the omelet body and a slightly nutty flavour.
Milk
Adds moisture and softness, keeping the omelet tender rather than dry.
Grated cheese (gruyére or parmesan)
Adds savoury flavour and richness, and browns slightly in the pan.
Cut boiled french beans
Add texture and a fresh, green vegetable element to the omelet.

The step that matters

Fry the omelet in boiling vegetable butter or oil.. The fat must be hot enough to set the egg surface quickly. If it is too cool, the omelet absorbs fat and turns greasy and dense before it firms up.

Swap the beans

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

  1. Walnutfits better
  2. Peasfits about as well
  3. Beansthe original
  4. Pecansfits about as well

Fit is the average pairing score against egg, milk, cheese, pepper, 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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