Name: Omelette with Lobster, Shrimp, or Crawfish
Ingredients: 1 tablespoon lobster meat (red and white mixed) or shrimp or crawfish; ½ ounce butter; 1 small blade of mace; 2 eggs

Why it works: Butter and egg are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 17% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 118,967 recipes. Both carry decanal, which smells soap, orange peel. The science ↓

Omelette with Lobster, Shrimp, or Crawfish

Ingredients

1 tablespoon lobster meat (red and white mixed) or shrimp or crawfish
½ ounce butter
1 small blade of mace
2 eggs

Directions

Prepare

Prepare the omelette mixture for the pan.
Pound the lobster meat (or shrimp or crawfish) with the butter and mace in a mortar.
Beat the mixture well with the eggs.

Cook and serve

Fry the omelette in the pan until cooked.
Serve hot.

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.

Butter + eggtop 17% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together118,967 recipes

Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).
Lobster + buttertop 18% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together2,609 recipes

Shared aroma: 2,6-nonadienal (cucumber, green).
Butter + macetop 22% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked together11,405 recipes

Shared aroma: linalool (floral, citrus).
Lobster + macetop 27% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked together596 recipes
Lobster + eggtop 28% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together1,484 recipes

Shared aroma: octanal (fat, soap).

Butter and mace barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 11,405 recipes: they work on texture and structure more than aroma.

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

What each ingredient does

Lobster meat: Provides the main seafood flavour and tender texture in the filling.
Butter: Adds richness and moisture, carrying flavour through the mixture.
Mace: Adds a warm, aromatic spice note to the seafood.
Eggs: Set when heated to form the body and structure of the omelette.