Why it works: Milk and butter are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 7% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 81,283 recipes. Both carry (z)-4-heptenal, which smells biscuit, cream. The science ↓
French Bean Omelet
Ingredients
Directions
Make the batter
Smooth the wheatmeal with the milk.
Beat the eggs and add them to the mixture along with the cheese and seasoning. Mix thoroughly with the beans.
Cook
Fry the omelet in boiling vegetable butter or oil.
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.
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Milk + buttertop 7% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together81,283 recipes
Shared aroma: (z)-4-heptenal (biscuit, cream).
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Cheese + buttertop 8% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together7,962 recipes
Shared aroma: delta-dodecalactone (sweet, creamy).
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Milk + cheesetop 10% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together4,426 recipes
Shared aroma: delta-dodecalactone (sweet, creamy).
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Beans + peppertop 11% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together4,733 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).
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Beans + cheesetop 14% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together741 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 omelette's structure and body as they cook.
- Fine wheatmeal
- Smoothed into the milk to thicken the mixture and give it body.
- Milk
- Adds moisture, keeping the omelette tender rather than dry.
- Grated cheese
- Adds savoury flavour and richness to the omelette.
- French beans
- Add bulk, texture and a fresh vegetable flavour.
Swap the beans
How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (egg, milk, cheese, pepper, butter):
- Walnutfits better
- Peasfits about as well
- Beansthe original
- Pecansfits about as well
Fit is the average pairing score against egg, milk, cheese, pepper, 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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