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Savoury Omelet

A quick omelet made with eggs, water, pepper, salt, parsley, and butter.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 6 ingredients
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Why it works: Pepper and parsley 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 Omelet

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. In a bowl, whisk together the eggs, water, pepper, salt, and parsley until just mixed.

  2. Melt the butter in an omelet pan over medium heat.

Cook and serve

  1. Pour in the egg mixture when the butter is hot.

  2. Stir gently for a few seconds until it begins to set.

  3. Allow to cook for another second or two, then fold the omelet in half and turn it out onto a hot dish.

  4. Serve immediately, ensuring the inside is moist and soft.

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. Pepper + parsleytop 2% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together34,122 recipes

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

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

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

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

    Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).

  4. Egg + parsleytop 21% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together18,765 recipes

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

  5. Pepper + buttertop 21% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together85,593 recipes

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

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 omelet as they cook, forming its body.
Butter
Coats the pan so the eggs release cleanly and adds rich flavor.
Water
Adds moisture that turns to steam, keeping the omelet tender.

The step that matters

Stir gently and stop while the inside is still moist. Eggs set quickly from the outside in. Overcooking squeezes out moisture and makes them tough and dry, so the omelet should be folded while the center still looks slightly soft.

“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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