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Savoury Omelette

A quick omelette flavored with parsley, chives, salt, cayenne pepper, and butter.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 6 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 ↓

Savoury Omelette

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. Melt the butter in a 6‑inch frying pan over medium heat.

  2. Beat the eggs until the whites and yolks are mixed.

  3. Add the parsley, chives (or onion juice), salt, and cayenne pepper. Mix well.

Cook and fold

  1. Pour the egg mixture into the hot buttered pan.

  2. Stir the mixture gently from the sides and bottom to prevent sticking.

  3. When nearly set, tilt the pan and fold one half of the omelette over the other.

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. Parsley + chivetop 3% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together2,150 recipes

    Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).

  3. Chive + peppertop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together2,885 recipes

    Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).

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

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

  5. Chive + buttertop 16% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together2,097 recipes

    Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).

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.
Butter
Adds richness and helps keep the omelette from sticking to the pan.
Parsley
Adds fresh, green flavour and aroma to the eggs.
Chives
Add a mild onion-like aroma and fresh flavour to the eggs.

The step that matters

Stirring the mixture gently from the sides and bottom. Moving the cooking egg lets liquid egg reach the hot pan, so curds form while the surface stays soft. Stirring too hard or too little can make the omelette tough, stuck, or unevenly cooked.

Swap the chive

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

  1. Shallotfits about as well
  2. Chivethe original
  3. Carrotfits about as well
  4. Capsicumfits about as well

Fit is the average pairing score against egg, 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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