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Omelettes Op Fish

A fish-flavored omelette made with cold salt cod, eggs, cream, and seasonings.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 10 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 ↓

Omelettes Op Fish

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the fish

  1. Flake the cold salt cod and season with cayenne, nutmeg, and white pepper.

  2. Mix the seasoned fish with 6 beaten eggs and ½ cup cream or milk.

Cook the omelette

  1. Fry the mixture on one side only, then fold and serve.

Second method

  1. For the second method, chop the cold fish and mix with parsley, shallot, butter, and lemon juice.

  2. Heat this mixture in the oven.

  3. Beat 6 eggs, season them, and pour into a buttered frying pan.

  4. When the eggs begin to turn opaque, add the warm fish in the middle.

  5. Roll in the ends of the omelette and 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. Pepper + parsleytop 2% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together34,122 recipes

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

  3. Nutmeg + parsleytop 3% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together5,062 recipes

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

  4. Nutmeg + shallottop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together1,019 recipes

    Shared aroma: eucalyptol (eucalyptus, herbal).

  5. Pepper + nutmegtop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together13,015 recipes

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

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

What each ingredient does

Eggs
Set into a tender structure that holds the omelette together when cooked.
Cream or milk
Adds moisture and softness to the eggs, keeping the omelette tender.
Salt cod
Provides the main fish flavour and substance of the filling.
Butter
Adds richness and helps the omelette brown and release from the pan.
Lemon juice
Adds acidity that brightens the rich eggs and fish.

The step that matters

Adding the fish to the eggs. Eggs set quickly from the edges inward, so the fish should be added while the eggs are still partly liquid. Adding it once the omelette is fully set leaves the filling unevenly mixed and the eggs dry and rubbery.

Swap the white pepper

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (egg, cream, fish, pepper, nutmeg, parsley, shallot):

  1. Tarragonfits better
  2. Capersfits better
  3. Marjoramfits better
  4. White pepperthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against egg, cream, fish, pepper, nutmeg, parsley, shallot. 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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