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Oyster Omelet

A savory omelet made with oysters, eggs, butter, cayenne pepper, salt, and lemon juice.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 6 ingredients
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Why it works: Pepper and lemon match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 3% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 27,047 recipes. Both carry trans-2-nonenal, which smells cardboard, fatty. The science ↓

Oyster Omelet

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the filling

  1. Beat the eggs very lightly.

  2. Remove gills from oysters and stir them into the beaten eggs.

  3. Season the mixture with cayenne pepper, salt, and lemon juice.

Cook the omelet

  1. Melt the butter in a clean omelet pan and skim away any froth.

  2. Pour in the egg mixture before the butter colors.

  3. Keep the pan moving over the fire until the mixture thickens to the consistency of thick cream.

  4. Let the pan rest over the fire for about a minute.

  5. Slide a broad knife under one half of the omelet and fold it over the other half.

  6. Trim the edges neatly and tilt the pan to brown the lower side.

  7. Reverse the pan over a hot dish and serve quickly with the brown side up.

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 + lemontop 3% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together27,047 recipes

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

  2. Butter + oystertop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together8,184 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2,6-nonadienal (cucumber, green).

  3. Egg + oystertop 14% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together4,103 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).

  4. Butter + lemontop 16% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together41,227 recipes

    Shared aroma: 3-hexenal (apple, fruity).

  5. Butter + eggtop 17% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together118,967 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 delicate structure that forms the body of the omelet.
Butter
Enriches the omelet with fat and gives the lower side a golden browning.
Oysters
Provide the main flavor and tender bite within the set egg.

The step that matters

Pour in the egg mixture before the butter colors. Butter that has browned before the eggs go in can scorch and taste bitter, and the eggs may stick. Pouring at the right moment keeps the butter foaming gently so the omelet cooks evenly and browns only where intended.

“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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