Name: Omelets, and Omelet Souffles
Ingredients: whole eggs; butter; cooked and finely minced meat or fish (optional)

Why it works: Butter and meat are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 16% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 7,594 recipes. Both carry guaiacol, which smells smoky, sweet. The science ↓

Omelets, and Omelet Souffles

Oven, in the book's wordsA hot oven

Ingredients

whole eggs
butter
cooked and finely minced meat or fish (optional)

Directions

Keep a special pan clean by wiping it with paper and a dry cloth instead of washing.
For omelets, use whole eggs and beat them lightly to allow the mixture to set easily for folding.
For omelet souffles, beat the yolks and whites separately, making the whites very stiff, and add them last to the other ingredients.
Heat the frying pan evenly but not so hot that it colors the butter.
For an omelet, use bottom heat only. Fold it in half or roll it before removing from the pan while the top is still slightly soft.
For omelet souffles, apply top heat after the bottom is cooked, using a salamander or placing the pan in a hot oven for a minute or two.
To serve, slip a broad knife under the omelet and lift, letting the sides fall over so the top is on the outside.
Serve omelets and omelet souffles on a warm dish, covered with a warm lid, 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.

Butter + meattop 16% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together7,594 recipes

Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).
Egg + buttertop 17% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together118,967 recipes

Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).
Egg + meattop 22% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together6,432 recipes

Shared aroma: 2,4-decadienal (seaweed).