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An Omelette By the First Intention

A simple omelette made with eggs, salt, shallot, parsley, and butter.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 6 ingredients
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Why it works: Shallot and parsley match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 3,737 recipes. Both carry 2,4-decadienal, which smells seaweed. The science ↓

An Omelette By the First Intention

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the eggs

  1. Break 4 whole eggs into a bowl.

  2. Add the yolks of 2 additional eggs to the bowl.

  3. Mix thoroughly using two forks without heating.

  4. Add ½ teaspoon of coarse sea salt to the mixture.

  5. Add 1 teaspoon of minced shallot to the mixture.

  6. Add 1 tablespoon of minced parsley to the mixture.

  7. Stir the mixture for 1 minute.

Cook the omelette

  1. Heat a shallow pan over a charcoal fire.

  2. Melt enough butter to coat the surface of the pan.

  3. Once the butter is hot and beginning to brown, pour the egg mixture into the pan.

  4. Lift the cooked edges of the omelette to allow uncooked mixture to flow underneath.

  5. Shake the pan gently.

  6. Remove from heat once the omelette is set.

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. Shallot + parsleytop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together3,737 recipes

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

  2. Parsley + buttertop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together28,563 recipes

    Shared aroma: trans-2-hexenal (green, leafy).

  3. Shallot + buttertop 17% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together4,426 recipes

    Shared aroma: eucalyptol (eucalyptus, herbal).

  4. Egg + buttertop 17% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together118,967 recipes

    Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).

  5. Egg + parsleytop 21% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together18,765 recipes

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

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 to form the omelette's structure and body.
Butter
Coats the pan to prevent sticking and adds richness and browning to the surface.
Shallot
Adds a mild, aromatic onion flavour to the eggs.

The step that matters

Remove from heat once the omelette is set. Eggs keep cooking from residual heat, so removing the pan while the surface is still slightly moist prevents the proteins from over-tightening, which makes the omelette rubbery and dry.

Swap the shallot

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

  1. Shallotthe original
  2. Chivefits about as well
  3. Leekfits less well
  4. Potatofits less well

Fit is the average pairing score against egg, parsley, 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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