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Savoury Omelette

A light egg dish folded with beaten whites, seasoned with salt, pepper, parsley, and milk, cooked in 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 Omelette

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the eggs

  1. Break the eggs, placing the yolks in a bowl and the whites on a plate.

  2. Mix the seasoning, parsley, and milk with the yolks.

  3. Add a pinch of salt to the whites and beat them until stiff.

  4. Gently fold the beaten whites into the yolk mixture.

Cook and serve

  1. Melt the butter in a small frying pan over medium heat.

  2. Pour the egg mixture into the pan and stir gently two or three times.

  3. Run a knife around the edges to prevent sticking and move the pan to cook evenly.

  4. Set the top by holding it before a hot fire for a minute or using a red-hot poker.

  5. Fold the omelette in half and transfer it to a hot dish.

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

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

  3. Butter + parsleytop 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
Whites trap air when beaten, giving the omelette its light, puffed structure, while yolks add richness and set into a tender body.
Butter
Fat that coats the pan to prevent sticking and adds a rich, savory flavor to the omelette.
Milk or cream
Adds moisture to the yolk mixture, producing a softer, more tender texture when the eggs set.

The step that matters

Set the top gently after folding in the whites. Egg proteins coagulate with heat, so the mixture must set without overcooking. Too much heat or stirring toughens the eggs and makes them rubbery or dry, while underdone tops stay runny and collapse.

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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