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Omelet

A quick egg-based dish cooked in butter, flavored with herbs and optional ham or tongue.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 11 ingredients
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Why it works: Parsley and shallot match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 3,737 recipes. Both carry 2,4-decadienal, which smells seaweed. The science ↓

Omelet

Ingredients

Directions

Make the filling

  1. In a bowl, whisk together eggs, milk, flour, parsley, green onions, shallot, pepper, salt, and nutmeg.

  2. In a small frying pan, melt butter over medium heat.

Cook the omelette

  1. Pour the egg mixture into the pan and cook until the bottom is golden brown.

  2. Carefully flip the omelet to cook the other side until golden brown.

  3. If desired, add ham or tongue before folding the omelet in half to serve.

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 + shallottop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together3,737 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2,4-decadienal (seaweed).

  2. Parsley + peppertop 2% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together34,122 recipes

    Shared aroma: 4'-methylacetophenone (bitter almond).

  3. Parsley + nutmegtop 3% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together5,062 recipes

    Shared aroma: 4'-methylacetophenone (bitter almond).

  4. Shallot + nutmegtop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together1,019 recipes

    Shared aroma: eucalyptol (eucalyptus, herbal).

  5. Flour + shallottop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together2,081 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

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, holding it together.
Milk
Adds moisture, keeping the eggs tender rather than dry and rubbery.
Flour
Thickens the egg mixture slightly, giving the omelette a softer, more stable body.
Butter
Fat for the pan that helps prevent sticking and promotes golden browning on the surface.

The step that matters

Cook over medium heat until golden. Egg proteins set quickly and turn tough and rubbery when overcooked or heated too hard. Medium heat lets the bottom brown gently while the inside stays moist and tender.

Swap the shallot

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

  1. Chivefits about as well
  2. Shallotthe original
  3. Carrotfits about as well
  4. Spinachfits about as well

Fit is the average pairing score against egg, milk, flour, parsley, onion, pepper, nutmeg. 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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