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Omelet

A cooked egg dish with chives, pepper, salt, mushrooms, eschalots, young onions, and optional asparagus, served hot with brown gravy.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 8 ingredients
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Why it works: Chive and asparagus match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 2% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 165 recipes. Both carry guaiacol, which smells smoky, sweet. The science ↓

Omelet

Oven, in the book's wordsA quick oven

Ingredients

Directions

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

Prepare

  1. Beat the eggs in a bowl.

  2. Add chives or leeks, pepper, salt, mushrooms, eschalots, and young onions.

  3. If desired, add a little asparagus.

Cook and serve

  1. Fry the mixture in a pan or bake it in a 400°F (200°C) oven.

  2. Serve hot with a little brown gravy around the edge.

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. Chive + asparagustop 2% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together165 recipes

    Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).

  2. Chive + oniontop 3% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together1,907 recipes

    Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).

  3. Mushroom + asparagustop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together400 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2,4-nonadienal (fatty, green).

  4. Chive + mushroomtop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together553 recipes

    Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).

  5. Onion + asparagustop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together1,212 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).

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

What each ingredient does

Eggs
Set to form the body of the omelet as they cook.
Mushrooms
Add moisture and savory flavor as they soften during cooking.
Eschalots
Add mild onion-like aroma and sweetness when cooked.

The step that matters

Fry the mixture in a pan or bake it in a 400°F (200°C) oven.. Eggs set quickly under heat, so cooking too hot or too long can make the omelet tough and dry. Gentle, even heat keeps it tender and moist.

Swap the asparagus

The recipe marks asparagus as optional. How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (egg, chive, pepper, mushroom, onion):

  1. Shallotfits better
  2. Spinachfits better
  3. Leekfits about as well
  4. Asparagusthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against egg, chive, pepper, mushroom, onion. 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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