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Swiss Omelet

A lightly fried omelet made with butter, cheese, parsley, sweet leeks, pepper, and sea salt.

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 ↓

Swiss Omelet

Oven, in the book's wordsA moderately hot oven

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the filling

  1. Melt the butter in a pan.

  2. Combine the melted butter with the cheese and herbs.

  3. Season with pepper and coarse sea salt.

Cook and serve

  1. Add the well-beaten eggs and mix well.

  2. Fry the mixture lightly in a little butter.

  3. 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 + peppertop 2% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together34,122 recipes

    Shared aroma: 4'-methylacetophenone (bitter almond).

  2. Parsley + leektop 4% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together759 recipes

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

  3. Butter + cheesetop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together7,962 recipes

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

  4. Leek + peppertop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together965 recipes

    Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).

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

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

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

What each ingredient does

Eggs
Set into the structure of the omelette as they cook, holding the filling together.
Butter
Adds richness and carries flavour, and helps the omelette brown lightly in the pan.
Grated cheese
Adds savoury flavour and fat, and melts into the eggs for a creamier texture.
Sweet leeks
Add mild onion-like sweetness and aroma to the filling.
Parsley
Adds fresh, green aroma and a touch of brightness to the filling.

The step that matters

Fry the mixture lightly. Egg proteins set quickly over moderate heat, so cooking gently keeps the omelette tender and prevents it from turning dry, rubbery or browned too hard.

Swap the leek

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

  1. Capsicumfits better
  2. Potatofits better
  3. Chivefits better
  4. Leekthe original

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