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The Omelette

An omelette made with eggs, salmon, herring roes, shallot, parsley, and butter.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 8 ingredients
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Why it works: Shallot and parsley match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 3,737 recipes. Both carry 2,4-decadienal, which smells seaweed. The science ↓

The Omelette

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the filling

  1. In a bowl, mix the eggs well.

  2. In a pan, toss the salmon, herring roes, shallot, and parsley in butter until combined.

  3. Stir the mixture into the bowl with the eggs.

Cook and serve

  1. Cook the egg mixture in a hot pan until just set on top.

  2. Transfer the omelette to a hot dish with melted butter, vinegar, shallot, and parsley.

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. Shallot + parsleytop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together3,737 recipes

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

  2. Salmon + roetop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together176 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2,6-nonadienal (cucumber, green).

  3. Shallot + vinegartop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together2,374 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  4. Egg + roetop 14% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together243 recipes

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

  5. Roe + buttertop 14% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together442 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2,6-nonadienal (cucumber, 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 soft structure that holds the omelette together.
Salmon
Adds savory flavor and tender flakes throughout the omelette.
Herring roes
Add a rich, creamy texture and concentrated savory flavor.
Shallot
Adds a mild, sharp onion-like aroma and flavor.
Butter
Adds richness and carries flavor while cooking the filling and finishing the dish.

The step that matters

Cook the egg mixture until just set on top. Eggs turn firm and rubbery when overcooked, so removing the pan while the top is still slightly glossy keeps the omelette tender and moist as it finishes setting.

Swap the parsley

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (egg, salmon, roe, shallot, butter, vinegar):

  1. Capersfits better
  2. Tarragonfits about as well
  3. Parsleythe original
  4. Dillfits less well

Fit is the average pairing score against egg, salmon, roe, shallot, butter, vinegar. 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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