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French Omelette

A savory omelette made with milk, bread crumbs, eggs, onion, parsley, and seasonings, cooked in butter.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 9 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 ↓

French Omelette

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. In a large bowl, combine milk, bread crumbs, eggs, flour, chopped onion, parsley, pepper, and salt.

  2. Melt butter in a skillet over medium heat.

Cook and serve

  1. Pour the mixture into the skillet and cook until the bottom is brown.

  2. Carefully turn the omelette over and cook until the other side is browned.

  3. Fold the omelette in half and serve immediately.

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

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

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

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

  4. Onion + parsleytop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together25,843 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2,4-decadienal (seaweed).

  5. Milk + breadtop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together11,466 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-undecenal (sweet).

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

What each ingredient does

Eggs
Bind the mixture and set into a firm, sliceable omelette as they cook.
Bread crumbs
Soak up the milk and add body, giving the omelette a softer, more tender texture.
Milk
Adds moisture and softness, so the omelette stays tender rather than dry.
Flour
Thickens the mixture slightly and helps it hold together when turned.
Onion
Adds savoury sweetness and aroma as it softens in the mixture.

The step that matters

Carefully turn the omelette over. The base must be set and browned enough to hold its shape. Turning too early can tear the omelette, because the uncooked egg and crumb mixture is still loose and fragile.

Swap the onion

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

  1. Shallotfits better
  2. Chivefits better
  3. Potatofits better
  4. Onionthe original

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