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Oyster Omelet

A savory omelet made with oysters, eggs, milk, oyster liquor, butter, salt, and pepper, cooked in a chafing dish.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 7 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 ↓

Oyster Omelet

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the oysters

  1. Blanch the oysters in their own liquor.

  2. Drain the oysters.

  3. Remove the gills.

  4. Cut the oysters into small dice.

Make the omelet

  1. Beat the eggs with the milk and oyster liquor.

  2. Season the mixture with salt and pepper.

  3. Add the diced oysters to the mixture.

  4. Melt the butter in a chafing dish.

  5. Pour the mixture into the chafing dish.

  6. Stir over medium heat until the eggs begin to set.

  7. Fold the omelet over.

  8. Shape the omelet neatly.

  9. Allow the omelet to color slightly.

  10. Serve the omelet.

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. Oyster + buttertop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together8,184 recipes

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

  3. Oyster + eggtop 14% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together4,103 recipes

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

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

    Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).

  5. 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
Set into a tender structure that holds the diced oysters together.
Oysters
Provide the main flavor and savory body of the omelet.
Butter
Adds richness and helps the omelet brown lightly in the pan.
Milk
Loosens the egg mixture, keeping the omelet softer and more tender.

The step that matters

Stir over medium heat until the eggs begin to set. Eggs turn rubbery when overcooked. Stirring over moderate heat keeps curds small and tender, and the omelet should be folded while still slightly soft so it finishes gently in its own heat.

“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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