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Omelet Onion

A baked omelet with onions, butter, breadcrumbs, eggs, milk, pepper, and sea salt.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 7 ingredients
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Why it works: Butter and milk 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 ↓

Omelet Onion

Oven, in the book's wordsA moderately hot oven

Ingredients

Directions

The book says “a moderately hot oven”. The 350°F (175°C) in the steps is the modern equivalent, not the book's own figure.

Prepare the onions

  1. Peel and slice the onions.

  2. Bake the onions in a pie dish with the butter, pepper, and salt until soft.

Make the omelet

  1. Whisk the eggs and mix them with the milk, breadcrumbs, and baked onions.

  2. Pour the mixture into a greased pie dish.

  3. Bake in a moderate oven at 350°F (175°C) until set.

Serve

  1. Serve with tomato sauce.

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. Butter + milktop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together81,283 recipes

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

  2. Onion + peppertop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together68,474 recipes

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

  3. Onion + buttertop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together42,912 recipes

    Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).

  4. Butter + eggtop 17% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together118,967 recipes

    Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).

  5. Egg + milktop 18% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together88,785 recipes

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

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

What each ingredient does

Eggs
Set and bind the mixture into a firm, sliceable omelet as they cook.
Onions
Provide sweetness and savory flavor as they soften and caramelize during baking.
Breadcrumbs
Absorb liquid and add body, giving the omelet a lighter, more tender texture.
Milk
Adds moisture and makes the egg mixture softer and more custard-like.
Butter
Adds richness and helps soften the onions while adding flavor.

The step that matters

Bake until set. Eggs set between about 160°F and 180°F, so the omelet can look wobbly or stay runny in the center if underbaked, while overbaking makes it dry and rubbery. Check that the center is just firm.

Swap the onion

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

  1. Capsicumfits better
  2. Potatofits better
  3. Asparagusfits better
  4. Onionthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against butter, egg, milk, pepper. 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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