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Spinach Omelet

A baked omelet made with spinach, beets, parsley, leeks, lemon thyme, flour, milk, eggs, butter, pepper, salt, nutmeg or mace.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 12 ingredients
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Why it works: Parsley and thyme match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 9,057 recipes. Both carry cuminaldehyde, which smells Spicy, cumin. The science ↓

Spinach Omelet

Oven, in the book's wordsA brisk oven

Ingredients

Directions

The book says “a brisk oven”. The 400°F (200°C) in the steps is the modern equivalent, not the book's own figure.

Prepare

  1. Chop the spinach, beets, parsley, leeks, and lemon-thyme together.

  2. Season with pepper, salt, and nutmeg or mace.

Make the batter

  1. Add the flour, milk, beaten eggs, and melted butter, then mix well.

  2. Pour the mixture into a greased baking dish.

Bake

  1. Bake for 20 minutes in a 400°F (200°C) oven.

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. Parsley + thymetop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together9,057 recipes

    Shared aroma: cuminaldehyde (Spicy, cumin).

  2. Parsley + lemontop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together14,037 recipes

    Shared aroma: beta-phellandrene (minty, terpene).

  3. Lemon + thymetop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together3,973 recipes

    Shared aroma: beta-phellandrene (minty, terpene).

  4. Leek + thymetop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together360 recipes

    Shared aroma: 1-octen-3-ol (mushroom, earthy).

  5. Spinach + leektop 2% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together42 recipes

    Shared aroma: 1-octen-3-ol (mushroom, earthy).

Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs

What each ingredient does

Eggs
Bind the mixture and set into a firm, tender omelette when baked.
Flour
Thickens the liquid and gives the omelette body and structure.
Milk
Adds moisture and softness to the set eggs.
Butter
Adds richness and fat, contributing flavour and a tender texture.
Spinach
Provides the main vegetable bulk, moisture and a green flavour.

Swap the spinach

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (parsley, leek, lemon, thyme, flour, milk, egg):

  1. Shallotfits better
  2. Parsnipfits better
  3. Chivefits better
  4. Spinachthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against parsley, leek, lemon, thyme, flour, milk, egg. 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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