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The Savoury Omelette

A quick omelette made with eggs, parsley, butter, salt, pepper, and optional meats or vegetables.

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 ↓

The Savoury Omelette

Ingredients

Directions

  1. Heat a non-stick pan over high heat until hot.

  2. In a bowl, beat the eggs with salt, pepper, and chopped parsley.

  3. Pour the egg mixture into the hot pan and cook for about 45 seconds.

  4. Add any optional ingredients like ham or vegetables while the omelette is cooking.

  5. Once the edges are set, carefully fold the omelette in half and slide it onto a warm plate.

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 + cauliflowertop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together233 recipes

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

  3. Pepper + cauliflowertop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,113 recipes

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

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

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

  5. Butter + hamtop 16% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together5,475 recipes

    Shared aroma: trans-2-decenal (waxy, orange).

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 omelette as they cook, holding it together when folded.
Melted butter
Adds richness and helps keep the omelette from sticking to the pan.

The step that matters

Cooking the egg mixture in the hot pan. Eggs proteins set quickly over high heat, so pouring into a properly hot pan and folding once the edges are set keeps the omelette tender rather than rubbery or torn.

Swap the cauliflower

The recipe marks cauliflower as optional. How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (egg, parsley, butter, pepper, ham):

  1. Shallotfits better
  2. Carrotfits better
  3. Capsicumfits better
  4. Cauliflowerthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against egg, parsley, butter, pepper, ham. 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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