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Omelette Aux Poireaux

A French omelette with sautéed leeks, butter, cheese, and brown sauce.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 8 ingredients
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Why it works: Butter and milk 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 ↓

Omelette Aux Poireaux

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. Break the eggs into a bowl, add the cheese, salt, cayenne, and milk or cream, and beat well to combine.

  2. Slice the cooked leeks and keep them warm in a small pan with enough brown sauce to moisten.

Cook and serve

  1. Melt the butter in an omelet pan over medium heat, pour in the egg mixture, and stir until the eggs begin to set.

  2. Shape the omelet into a cushion, place the stewed leeks in the center, and fold the ends over.

  3. Allow the omelet to brown slightly, then turn it out onto a hot dish, pour a little brown sauce around the base, 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 + milktop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together81,283 recipes

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

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

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

  3. Cheese + milktop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together4,426 recipes

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

  4. Butter + saucetop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together15,338 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).

  5. Butter + leektop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together848 recipes

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

Butter and sauce barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 15,338 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 into a tender structure that forms the body of the omelet.
Butter
Adds richness and helps the omelet release and brown lightly in the pan.
Leeks
Provide a mild, savory filling that adds moisture and flavor.
Grated cheese
Adds savory flavor and richness to the egg mixture.

The step that matters

Stirring until the eggs begin to set. Eggs cook quickly over heat. Stirring until they just begin to set keeps curds small and tender, while overcooking makes the omelet dry and rubbery.

Swap the leek

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

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

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