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Omelet

A baked omelet made with eggs, butter, bread crumbs, parsley, pepper, salt, and water, served with brown sauce and boiled asparagus.

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

Omelet

Oven, in the book's wordsA hot oven

Ingredients

Directions

The book says “a hot oven”. The 400°F (200°C) in the steps is the modern equivalent, not the book's own figure.

Make the mixture

  1. Add 2 tablespoons of water to the bread crumbs and season with pepper and salt.

  2. Beat the eggs well and combine with the bread crumb mixture.

Cook and serve

  1. Melt the butter in a flat pan and pour in the egg mixture.

  2. Sprinkle the chopped parsley over the top.

  3. Bake in a hot oven at 400°F (200°C) for about 15 minutes.

  4. Serve with brown sauce, adding boiled asparagus ends cut into small pieces.

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. Butter + breadtop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together27,232 recipes

    Shared aroma: delta-decalactone (sweet, creamy).

  3. Egg + breadtop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together22,662 recipes

    Shared aroma: (e)-2-octenal (fatty, green).

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

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

  5. Bread + parsleytop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together8,588 recipes

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

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

What each ingredient does

Eggs
Set when heated to form the body of the omelet.
Butter
Adds richness and helps the omelet release from the pan.
Bread crumbs
Absorb moisture and give the omelet a lighter, softer texture.

The step that matters

Bake in a hot oven at 400°F (200°C) for about 15 minutes. Egg proteins set as they heat, so the omelet should be baked just until firm. Overbaking squeezes out moisture and makes it dry and rubbery.

Swap the parsley

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (egg, butter, bread, pepper):

  1. Parsleythe original
  2. Nutmegfits about as well
  3. Sagefits less well
  4. Tarragonfits less well

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