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Omelettes, and Various Ways of Dressing Eggs

A quick omelette cooked with butter, seasoned with salt, and finished with parsley and chives.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 5 ingredients
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Why it works: Parsley and chive match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 3% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 2,150 recipes. Both carry coumarin, which smells sweet, hay. The science ↓

Omelettes, and Various Ways of Dressing Eggs

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. Beat the eggs until well mixed.

  2. Season with salt.

Cook

  1. Heat the butter in a non-stick skillet over medium heat until melted.

  2. Pour the eggs into the skillet.

  3. Cook gently, stirring occasionally.

  4. Sprinkle the parsley and chives on top.

  5. Fold the omelette in half.

  6. Cook for another minute until fully set but not browned.

  7. Serve immediately.

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 + chivetop 3% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together2,150 recipes

    Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).

  2. Parsley + buttertop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together28,563 recipes

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

  3. Chive + buttertop 16% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together2,097 recipes

    Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).

  4. Egg + buttertop 17% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together118,967 recipes

    Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).

  5. Egg + chivetop 19% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,624 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

Eggs
Set into a delicate structure as they cook, forming the body of the omelette.
Butter
Adds richness and helps keep the eggs from sticking to the skillet.
Parsley
Adds fresh, herbal aroma and a little colour to the finished omelette.
Chives or onions
Add a mild, sharp aroma and savoury flavour to the eggs.

The step that matters

Cook gently and keep the omelette from browning. Eggs are proteins that toughen and turn rubbery when cooked over high heat. Gentle, moderate heat with stirring keeps the curds soft and tender, and removing the omelette once it is just set prevents browning and dryness.

Swap the parsley

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (egg, chive, butter):

  1. Capersfits better
  2. Tarragonfits about as well
  3. Parsleythe original
  4. Nutmegfits less well

Fit is the average pairing score against egg, chive, 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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