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Omelette

A quick egg omelette with bread crumbs, milk, butter, parsley, onions, pepper, and sea salt.

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 ↓

Omelette

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the mixture

  1. In a bowl, beat together the eggs, bread crumbs, milk, and cold water until well combined.

  2. Add chopped parsley and young onions, then season with pepper and coarse sea salt.

Cook and serve

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

  2. Pour the omelette mixture into the pan, ensuring it doesn't stick.

  3. When it begins to set, gently tap the handle of the pan to fold the omelette in half. Alternatively, use a slice to fold it.

  4. Serve immediately, ensuring the center remains yellow and liquid.

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. Parsley + oniontop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together25,843 recipes

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

  5. Bread + milktop 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
Set into a tender structure as they cook, forming the body of the omelette.
Bread crumbs
Absorb liquid and add body, keeping the omelette softer and more tender.
Milk or cream
Adds moisture and richness, producing a softer, more tender texture.
Butter
Adds fat for flavour and helps prevent sticking in the pan.

The step that matters

Serve immediately, keeping the center yellow and liquid. Eggs keep cooking from residual heat after leaving the pan. Serving promptly keeps the centre soft and moist rather than dry and overcooked.

Swap the onion

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

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

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