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Savoury Omelette

A quick omelette with butter, parsley, sweet herbs, onion, pepper, and salt.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 7 ingredients
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Why it works: Parsley and pepper match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 2% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 34,122 recipes. Both carry 4'-methylacetophenone, which smells bitter almond. The science ↓

Savoury Omelette

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the filling

  1. Beat the eggs in a bowl for one minute.

  2. Finely chop the parsley, onion, and sweet herbs, then add to the beaten eggs along with pepper and salt.

Cook and serve

  1. Heat a frying pan or omelette pan and add the butter.

  2. Once the butter is hot, pour in the egg mixture.

  3. Stir the mixture quickly with a spoon; when it starts to set, fold it towards the handle of the pan.

  4. Flip it over for a moment, then serve immediately on a hot dish. The omelette should be slightly runny in the middle.

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. Parsley + peppertop 2% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together34,122 recipes

    Shared aroma: 4'-methylacetophenone (bitter almond).

  2. Parsley + oniontop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together25,843 recipes

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

  3. Onion + peppertop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together68,474 recipes

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

  4. Butter + oniontop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together42,912 recipes

    Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).

  5. Butter + parsleytop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together28,563 recipes

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

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 when heated, forming its body.
Butter
Coats the pan to prevent sticking and adds richness and flavour to the omelette.
Chopped parsley
Adds fresh, green aroma and flavour to the beaten eggs.
Chopped onion
Adds savoury aroma and flavour to the eggs as they cook.

The step that matters

Stirring and folding as the eggs set. Eggs turn from liquid to solid quickly, and heat proteins tighten as they set. Stirring while the surface is still wet keeps curds small and tender, and folding only once it begins to set gives a neat shape. Overcooking makes the eggs dry and rubbery, so removing the omelette while the middle is still slightly runny keeps it moist.

Swap the onion

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

  1. Shallotfits better
  2. Chivefits better
  3. Carrotfits better
  4. Onionthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against egg, butter, parsley, pepper. 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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