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Omelette with Herbs

A baked omelette flavored with onion, parsley, pepper, and salt, served with tomatoes and semolina.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 10 ingredients
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Why it works: Parsley and pepper match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 2% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 34,122 recipes. Both carry 4'-methylacetophenone, which smells bitter almond. The science ↓

Omelette with Herbs

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the omelette mixture

  1. Boil semolina in milk until thick, then stir in a walnut-sized piece of butter and let cool.

  2. Once cool, stir in beaten eggs (yolks and whites separately).

  3. Add chopped onion and parsley to the egg mixture.

  4. Fry the mixture as you would for a regular omelette.

Bake the eggs and tomatoes

  1. Butter the molds and break an egg into each.

  2. Add a dusting of pepper and salt, and a small dab of butter on top.

  3. Bake in the oven until set.

  4. Grease a baking tin and place red tomatoes inside.

  5. Add a dab of butter on each tomato, dust with pepper and salt, and bake until soft.

Serve

  1. Serve the eggs and tomatoes alternately on a plate, sprinkled with chopped parsley.

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. Parsley + peppertop 2% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together34,122 recipes

    Shared aroma: 4'-methylacetophenone (bitter almond).

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

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

  3. Pepper + tomatotop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together17,923 recipes

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

  4. Onion + tomatotop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together20,633 recipes

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

  5. Parsley + tomatotop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together5,398 recipes

    Shared aroma: 4'-methylacetophenone (bitter almond).

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

What each ingredient does

Eggs
Set to bind the omelette and give it a firm, tender structure when cooked.
Semolina
Thickens the milk into a body that gives the omelette more substance and a softer texture.
Milk
Cooked with semolina to form a thick base that adds moisture to the mixture.
Butter
Adds richness and fat, contributing flavour and a tender texture to the eggs.
Red tomatoes
Soften when baked, adding moisture, acidity and sweetness alongside the eggs.

The step that matters

Bake until set. Eggs turn from liquid to solid as proteins coagulate with heat. Overbaking makes them rubbery and dry, while underbaking leaves them runny in the centre.

Swap the onion

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

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

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