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An Omelette

A simple egg omelette with pepper, salt, chives, 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 ↓

An Omelette

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the eggs

  1. Beat the eggs well for about 5 minutes.

  2. Add pepper, salt, chives, and parsley.

  3. Mix well.

Cook and finish

  1. Heat butter in a pan until hot.

  2. Pour the egg mixture into the pan.

  3. Stir until slightly browned.

  4. Use a salamander to finish cooking.

  5. Fold the omelette over.

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. Chive + parsleytop 3% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together2,150 recipes

    Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).

  3. Pepper + chivetop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together2,885 recipes

    Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).

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

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

  5. Chive + buttertop 16% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together2,097 recipes

    Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).

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, giving it body and a tender texture.
Butter
Fat that heats the pan evenly, helps prevent sticking, and adds richness and browning.
Chives
Add a mild onion-like aroma and fresh flavour to the beaten eggs.
Parsley
Adds a fresh, green herbal aroma and flavour to the eggs.

The step that matters

Stir until slightly browned. Eggs set quickly over high heat. Stirring keeps curds small and tender, while leaving them too long can make the omelette tough and dry, so the timing matters.

Swap the chive

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

  1. Shallotfits about as well
  2. Chivethe original
  3. Carrotfits about as well
  4. Capsicumfits about as well

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