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Savoury Omelette

A quick egg omelette flavored with parsley, milk, butter, pepper, and sea salt.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 6 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 eggs

  1. Break the eggs into a bowl and beat them well with a fork.

  2. Add milk and parsley, then season with pepper and salt.

Cook the omelette

  1. Melt the butter in an omelette or frying pan over medium heat.

  2. When hot, pour in the egg mixture and stir slowly with a fork.

  3. Shake the pan gently.

  4. When the omelette is set, roll it to one side.

  5. Allow it to brown slightly.

  6. Turn it quickly onto a hot dish and serve.

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. Milk + buttertop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together81,283 recipes

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

  3. Parsley + buttertop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together28,563 recipes

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

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

    Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).

  5. Egg + milktop 18% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together88,785 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 it together.
Milk
Adds moisture, keeping the omelette softer and more tender as it cooks.
Butter
Coats the pan to prevent sticking and adds richness and browning.
Parsley
Adds a fresh, herbal aroma and flavor.

The step that matters

Stirring the eggs in the pan. Stirring slowly keeps curds small and tender, while the eggs set. Stirring too hard or on high heat can make the eggs tough and dry.

Swap the parsley

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

  1. Nutmegfits about as well
  2. Parsleythe original
  3. Cinnamonfits about as well
  4. Tarragonfits less well

Fit is the average pairing score against egg, milk, butter, 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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