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Eggs and Omelettes

A quick omelette made with eggs, water, butter, pepper, salt, and optional fines herbes or cheese.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 6 ingredients
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Why it works: Butter and cheese are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 8% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 7,962 recipes. Both carry delta-dodecalactone, which smells sweet, creamy. The science ↓

Eggs and Omelettes

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. Grease a frying pan with butter and heat until melted.

  2. Beat the eggs with water, pepper, and salt, then pour into the pan.

Cook and serve

  1. Shake the pan gently and run a greased knife around the edges.

  2. When set, slide the omelette onto a plate, add fines herbes or cheese in the center, fold into thirds, and 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. Butter + cheesetop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together7,962 recipes

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

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

    Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).

  3. Pepper + cheesetop 18% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together7,861 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).

  4. Butter + peppertop 21% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together85,593 recipes

    Shared aroma: trans-2-nonenal (cardboard, fatty).

  5. Egg + cheesetop 28% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together6,253 recipes

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

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 its shape when folded.
Butter
Greases the pan so the omelette releases cleanly and adds richness to the flavor.
Water
Adds a little moisture, producing a softer, more tender set in the eggs.

The step that matters

Shake the pan gently and run a greased knife around the edges. Eggs set quickly over direct heat. Moving the pan and loosening the edges keeps the cooked egg from sticking and tearing, and lets uncooked egg flow to the hot surface for an even, tender omelette.

“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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