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A Plain Omelette with Herbs

A simple omelette flavored with parsley, pepper, and salt.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 5 ingredients
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Why it works: Pepper and parsley 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 ↓

A Plain Omelette with Herbs

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. Break the eggs into a cup and pour them into a bowl.

  2. Add the chopped parsley, pepper, and salt, then whisk the mixture for 15 seconds.

Cook the omelette

  1. Melt the butter in a frying pan over low heat without browning.

  2. Whisk the mixture again and pour it into the center of the pan.

  3. Stir slightly until the mixture begins to thicken.

  4. Shake the pan occasionally to keep the mixture free.

  5. Once firm, fold the omelette in half and turn it onto a hot dish.

Serve

  1. 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. Pepper + parsleytop 2% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together34,122 recipes

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

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

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

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

    Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).

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

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

  5. Pepper + buttertop 21% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together85,593 recipes

    Shared aroma: trans-2-nonenal (cardboard, fatty).

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

What each ingredient does

Eggs
Set into the omelette's structure as they cook, giving it body.
Butter
Adds richness and keeps the omelette from sticking to the pan.
Parsley
Adds fresh herbal aroma and a little color to the eggs.

The step that matters

Cook over low heat without browning. Low heat lets the egg proteins set gently and evenly. High heat toughens and browns the eggs before the centre is cooked, making the omelette rubbery.

“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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