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Roe Omelette

A fried omelette folded over a mixture of shad roe, butter, parsley, salt, and cayenne pepper.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 9 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 ↓

Roe Omelette

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the roe

  1. Boil the roe in hot water with a little salt for 20 minutes.

  2. Plunge the roe into ice-cold water until cold and firm.

  3. Wipe the roe.

  4. Break the roe into a granulated mass, removing skin and strings.

  5. Mix the roe with 1 tablespoon of butter, 1 tablespoon of minced parsley, salt, and cayenne pepper.

  6. Heat ½ cup of drawn butter in a saucepan.

  7. Beat the roe mixture into the heated butter.

  8. Set the saucepan in boiling water while you prepare the omelette.

Make and serve the omelette

  1. Whip 6 eggs together with a little salt until light.

  2. Pour the eggs into a frying pan with 1 tablespoon of simmering butter.

  3. Shake the pan steadily until the omelette thickens.

  4. Spread the roe mixture on half of the omelette.

  5. Fold the other half of the omelette over the roe mixture.

  6. Turn the folded omelette out onto a hot dish.

  7. Garnish with parsley.

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. Roe + eggtop 14% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together243 recipes

    Shared aroma: (e)-2-octenal (fatty, green).

  3. Roe + buttertop 14% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together442 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2,6-nonadienal (cucumber, green).

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

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

  5. Butter + eggtop 17% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together118,967 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

Roe of shad
Provides the main filling and rich flavour, set firm by boiling and chilling.
Eggs
Form the omelette structure, setting into a tender sheet around the filling.
Butter
Adds richness and carries the roe, while also keeping the omelette from sticking.

The step that matters

Beat the roe mixture into the heated butter. If the butter is too hot or the roe is added carelessly, the mixture can split or curdle, so it should be beaten in gradually to form a smooth, cohesive filling.

“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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