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Omelette Aux Confitures

An omelette made with eggs, lemon peel, cream, sweetmeat, and dusted with sugar.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 5 ingredients
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Why it works: Cream and sugar are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 9% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 43,450 recipes. Both carry 2,3-butanedione, which smells butter, sweet. The science ↓

Omelette Aux Confitures

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the eggs

  1. Separate the egg whites and yolks, beating the whites until stiff.

  2. Mix the lemon peel with the yolks, then combine the yolks and whites.

  3. Add a little cream and the sweetmeat, mixing gently.

Cook and serve

  1. Cook the omelette in a hot pan until set.

  2. Dust with sugar and glaze with a salamander before serving.

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. Cream + sugartop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together43,450 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2,3-butanedione (butter, sweet).

  2. Lemon + sugartop 18% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together53,532 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).

  3. Egg + lemontop 19% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together44,316 recipes

    Shared aroma: (e,e)-2,4-decadienal (fatty, deep fried).

  4. Egg + sugartop 21% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together122,807 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).

  5. Egg + creamtop 24% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together42,166 recipes

    Shared aroma: acetic acid (sour, vinegar).

Lemon and sugar barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 53,532 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
Whites beaten stiff trap air for a light, soft structure, while yolks enrich the texture and set when cooked.
Cream
Adds moisture and richness, keeping the omelette tender rather than dry.
Sweetmeat
Provides sweetness and fruity flavour to the filling.
Sugar
Dusted on top, it caramelises under the salamander for a browned, sweet finish.

The step that matters

Cook the omelette in a hot pan until set. Egg proteins set with heat, so the pan must be hot enough to cook the omelette quickly and evenly. Overcooking toughens the eggs and makes them dry and rubbery.

Swap the lemon

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (egg, cream, sugar):

  1. Vanillafits better
  2. Raisinfits better
  3. Strawberryfits about as well
  4. Lemonthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against egg, cream, sugar. 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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