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Omelettes, and Various Ways of Dressing Eggs

A simple omelette made with eggs, butter, salt, parsley, and optional chives or onions.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 5 ingredients
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Why it works: Parsley and chive match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 3% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 2,150 recipes. Both carry coumarin, which smells sweet, hay. The science ↓

Omelettes, and Various Ways of Dressing Eggs

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. In a bowl, beat the eggs with a pinch of salt until well mixed.

  2. Heat the butter in a non-stick skillet over medium heat until melted.

Cook and serve

  1. Pour the eggs into the skillet and cook gently, stirring occasionally.

  2. When the eggs are mostly set but still slightly runny, add the parsley and any optional ingredients.

  3. Fold the omelette in half and cook for another minute until fully set but not browned.

  4. 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 + chivetop 3% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together2,150 recipes

    Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).

  2. Butter + parsleytop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together28,563 recipes

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

  3. Butter + chivetop 16% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together2,097 recipes

    Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).

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

    Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).

  5. Egg + chivetop 19% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,624 recipes

    Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).

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

What each ingredient does

Eggs
Set into a delicate structure as they heat, forming the body of the omelette.
Butter
Coats the pan to prevent sticking and adds richness and flavour to the omelette.

The step that matters

Cooking the eggs gently and removing them while slightly runny. Eggs cooked over high heat or for too long turn tough and rubbery as proteins tighten and squeeze out moisture. Stopping while the centre is still slightly soft lets residual heat finish setting them, keeping the omelette tender.

Swap the chive

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

  1. Shallotfits about as well
  2. Chivethe original
  3. Leekfits about as well
  4. Potatofits less well

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