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Omelettes, and Various Ways of Dressing Eggs

A quick egg omelette cooked with butter, salt, pepper, and optional herbs.

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 ↓

Omelettes, and Various Ways of Dressing Eggs

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. Beat the eggs with salt and pepper until well combined.

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

Cook and serve

  1. Pour the egg mixture into the skillet.

  2. Cook gently, stirring occasionally.

  3. When the edges begin to set, reduce heat to low.

  4. Let cook until the center is just set but still moist.

  5. Add any optional herbs.

  6. Fold the omelette in half and 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. Pepper + parsleytop 2% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together34,122 recipes

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

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

    Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).

  3. Pepper + chivetop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together2,885 recipes

    Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).

  4. Butter + parsleytop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together28,563 recipes

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

  5. Butter + chivetop 16% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together2,097 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
Provide the structure that sets into the omelette's body as they cook.
Butter
Adds richness and helps prevent the eggs from sticking to the skillet.

The step that matters

Reduce heat when the edges begin to set. Eggs cook quickly and toughen at high heat. Lowering the heat once the edges set lets the center cook gently and stay moist instead of browning or becoming rubbery.

Swap the parsley

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

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

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