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Plain Omelet

A simple egg dish cooked with milk and butter.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 3 ingredients
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Why it works: Milk and butter are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 7% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 81,283 recipes. Both carry (z)-4-heptenal, which smells biscuit, cream. The science ↓

Plain Omelet

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the egg mixture

  1. Beat the eggs in a bowl.

  2. Add the milk and half of the butter cut into small pieces.

Cook the omelet

  1. Melt the remaining butter in a pan.

  2. Pour the egg mixture into the pan.

  3. Stir with the back of a spoon until it begins to set.

  4. Draw the omelet to one side of the pan.

  5. Cook until creamy in the center.

  6. Slip a knife under the omelet.

Serve

  1. Slide it onto a hot dish.

  2. Fold it in half.

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. Milk + buttertop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together81,283 recipes

    Shared aroma: (z)-4-heptenal (biscuit, cream).

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

    Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).

  3. Egg + milktop 18% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together88,785 recipes

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

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

What each ingredient does

Eggs
Proteins set as they heat, giving the omelet its structure and body.
Milk
Dilutes the egg slightly, producing a softer, more tender texture when cooked.
Butter
Adds richness and flavor, and helps keep the eggs from sticking to the pan.

The step that matters

Cook until creamy in the center.. Egg proteins tighten and squeeze out water as they cook, so overcooking turns the omelet dry and rubbery. Removing it while the center is still moist keeps it tender.

“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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