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Sweet Omelette

A sweet omelette made with milk, flour, eggs, butter, and red currant jelly.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 5 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 ↓

Sweet Omelette

Ingredients

Directions

Make the batter

  1. In a bowl, mix the milk and flour until smooth.

  2. Whisk together the yolks and whites of the eggs, then add to the milk mixture.

Cook and serve

  1. Heat a frying pan and add enough butter to coat the bottom.

  2. Pour half of the egg mixture into the hot butter.

  3. When the edges start to set, place the red currant jelly in the center.

  4. Cover the jelly with the remaining egg mixture.

  5. Once the top is set, 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. Milk + buttertop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together81,283 recipes

    Shared aroma: (z)-4-heptenal (biscuit, cream).

  2. Flour + buttertop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together124,287 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  3. Milk + flourtop 14% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together78,219 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  4. Flour + eggtop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together106,462 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

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

    Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).

Flour and butter barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 124,287 recipes: they work on texture and structure more than aroma.

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

What each ingredient does

Eggs
Set to give the omelette its structure and body as they cook.
Flour
Thickens the milk mixture, giving the batter body and a smoother texture.
Milk
Adds moisture and softness, loosening the egg mixture into a tender omelette.
Butter
Coats the pan to prevent sticking and adds richness and browning.
Red currant jelly
Adds sweetness and a fruity, tart flavour inside the omelette.

The step that matters

Cover the jelly with the remaining egg mixture. Egg proteins set with heat, so the top must be cooked enough to hold the filling without runny egg escaping, while the interior stays tender.

Swap the red currant

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

  1. Vanillafits better
  2. Raisinfits better
  3. Figfits better
  4. Red currantthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against milk, flour, egg, butter. 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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