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Mock Omelet or Puffed Puddinif

A light, airy egg dish cooked in a double‑boiled saucer.

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 ↓

Mock Omelet or Puffed Puddinif

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. Grease a saucer with a little butter.

  2. Place the saucer over a saucepan of boiling water to heat.

Make the omelet

  1. In a bowl, beat the egg yolk with the milk.

  2. In another bowl, beat the egg white until stiff peaks form, then gently fold it into the yolk mixture.

  3. If making a savory dish, add salt, pepper, and parsley.

  4. Pour the mixture into the heated saucer.

  5. Cover with a second heated saucer and cook for about 10 minutes.

Serve

  1. For a sweet version, add sugar or serve with heated jam or stewed fruit.

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. 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
Whipped egg whites trap air, which expands with heat and gives the omelet its puffed, light structure.
Milk
Adds moisture and softness to the yolk mixture, keeping the cooked omelet tender.

The step that matters

Folding the beaten egg white into the yolk mixture. Whites whipped to stiff peaks hold air bubbles that expand in the heat and lift the omelet. Stirring or beating vigorously collapses these bubbles, so the omelet will be flat and dense. Fold gently, lifting from the bottom, to keep as much air as possible.

Swap the parsley

The recipe marks parsley as optional. How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (egg, milk, pepper, butter):

  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, pepper, 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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