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Omelet

A fluffy egg omelet with herbs, optional ham or tongue, cooked in butter.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 12 ingredients
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Why it works: Parsley and shallot 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 ↓

Omelet

Oven, in the book's wordsA slow oven

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the batter

  1. In a bowl, whisk together the eggs, milk, and flour until smooth.

  2. Stir in the parsley, green onions or chives, shallot, pepper, salt, and nutmeg.

Cook and serve

  1. In a small frying pan, melt the butter over medium heat.

  2. Pour the batter into the pan and cook until the bottom is golden brown.

  3. Carefully flip the omelet and cook the other side until golden.

  4. Fold the omelet in half and serve hot, optionally adding ham or tongue.

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 + shallottop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together3,737 recipes

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

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

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

  3. Parsley + nutmegtop 3% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together5,062 recipes

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

  4. Shallot + nutmegtop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together1,019 recipes

    Shared aroma: eucalyptol (eucalyptus, herbal).

  5. Flour + shallottop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together2,081 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

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

What each ingredient does

Eggs
Set into the structure of the omelet as they cook, holding it together.
Milk
Adds moisture and softness, keeping the omelet tender rather than dry.
Flour
Thickens the batter slightly so it holds together when folded.
Butter
Fats the pan and promotes golden browning on the surface and a rich flavor.

The step that matters

Flipping the omelet. Egg proteins set quickly, so the omelet should be flipped only once the bottom is golden and the top is nearly set. Flipping too early tears it and too late makes it tough and dry.

Swap the shallot

The recipe marks shallot as optional. How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (egg, milk, flour, parsley, onion, pepper, nutmeg):

  1. Chivefits about as well
  2. Shallotthe original
  3. Carrotfits about as well
  4. Spinachfits about as well

Fit is the average pairing score against egg, milk, flour, parsley, onion, pepper, nutmeg. 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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Cheese 71Ham 64French 61Sweet 59Herb 54Bread 49 See all 137 →

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