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Sweet Omelette

A lightly sweetened omelette cooked with butter and topped with warm jam.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 5 ingredients
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Why it works: Egg and butter are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 17% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 118,967 recipes. Both carry decanal, which smells soap, orange peel. The science ↓

Sweet Omelette

Oven, in the book's wordsA moderate oven

Ingredients

Directions

The book says “a moderate oven”. The 350°F (175°C) in the steps is the modern equivalent, not the book's own figure.

Prepare

  1. Preheat your oven to 350°F (175°C).

  2. Melt the butter in a clean frying pan, skimming off the scum and leaving the sediment behind.

  3. Separate the yolks from the whites of the eggs. Add salt and sugar to the yolks and beat well.

  4. Whisk the egg whites until stiff peaks form.

  5. Heat the butter in the pan until hot.

Make the omelette

  1. Gently mix the egg whites into the yolk mixture and pour into the pan.

  2. Stir in as much butter as possible until the eggs begin to set.

  3. Smooth the top and let it rise in the pan, then transfer to the oven to firm up and lightly brown the top.

Finish and serve

  1. Remove from the oven, fold the omelette in half, and place on a warm dish.

  2. Spread warm jam on each side 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. Egg + buttertop 17% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together118,967 recipes

    Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).

  2. Butter + sugartop 17% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together98,233 recipes

    Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).

  3. Egg + sugartop 21% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together122,807 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).

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

What each ingredient does

Eggs
Whipped whites give the omelette its light, airy structure, while the yolks add richness and set.
Butter
Adds fat and flavour, and coats the pan so the omelette cooks and browns evenly.
Castor sugar
Sweetens the omelette and adds a little browning at the surface.
Warm jam
Adds sweetness, fruit flavour and moisture to the finished omelette.

The step that matters

Whisk the egg whites until stiff peaks form. Stiff peaks trap air that makes the omelette rise and stay light. Under-whipped whites collapse, and over-whipped whites turn dry and grainy, so the folded mixture loses its lift.

“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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