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Omelet Savoury

A savory omelet made with soaked wholemeal bread, milk, water, onion, egg, herbs, pepper, salt, and butter, baked until done.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 9 ingredients
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Why it works: Bread and butter are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 7% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 27,232 recipes. Both carry delta-decalactone, which smells sweet, creamy. The science ↓

Omelet Savoury

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.

Prepare the bread

  1. Soak the wholemeal bread in cold milk and water until soft.

  2. Rub the soaked bread smooth.

  3. Grate the onion and add it to the bread mixture.

Bake

  1. Beat the egg and mix it in with the herbs, pepper, and salt.

  2. Pour the mixture into a pie dish and place small pieces of butter on top.

  3. Bake at 350°F (175°C) for about 30 minutes, or until done.

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. Bread + buttertop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together27,232 recipes

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

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

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

  3. Bread + milktop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together11,466 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-undecenal (sweet).

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

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

  5. Bread + eggtop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together22,662 recipes

    Shared aroma: (e)-2-octenal (fatty, green).

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

What each ingredient does

Wholemeal bread
Forms the body of the omelet and soaks up liquid to create a soft, set base.
Egg
Binds the mixture and sets during baking to give the omelet structure.
Milk
Adds moisture and richness, keeping the bread mixture tender as it bakes.
Onion
Adds savory flavor and moisture through the grated pulp.
Butter
Adds fat for richness and gentle browning on the top surface.

The step that matters

Rub the soaked bread smooth. If the bread is not fully softened and broken down, lumps remain and the texture bakes uneven. Smooth bread absorbs liquid evenly, giving a consistent set custard-like crumb.

Swap the onion

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

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

Fit is the average pairing score against bread, milk, egg, 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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