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Savoury Omelet

A quick omelet made with eggs, water, parsley, butter, salt, and pepper.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
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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 Omelet

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. Whisk eggs, water, pepper, salt, and parsley in a bowl until just mixed.

  2. Melt butter in an omelet pan over medium heat.

Cook and serve

  1. When butter is hot, pour in the egg mixture.

  2. Stir gently for a few seconds until it begins to set.

  3. Allow to cook for another second or two.

  4. Fold the omelet in half while still soft and moist inside.

  5. Turn the omelet onto a hot dish and 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. Parsley + peppertop 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 structure of the omelet as they cook, forming its body.
Butter
Coats the pan so the eggs release cleanly and adds rich flavor and tenderness.
Water
Adds a little moisture, keeping the eggs tender rather than dense.

The step that matters

Stirring and cooking briefly once the butter is hot. Eggs proteins set quickly with heat. Stirring gently keeps curds small and tender, and removing the omelet while still soft prevents it from becoming rubbery and dry as the proteins tighten.

“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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