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Omelette Aux Fines Herbes

A light omelette flavored with finely minced parsley, chervil, garden cress, and chives.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 7 ingredients
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Why it works: Chervil and chive match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 370 recipes. Both carry coumarin, which smells sweet, hay. The science ↓

Omelette Aux Fines Herbes

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the eggs

  1. In a bowl, beat the eggs until just mixed.

  2. Add the minced herbs, salt, and pepper, and stir gently.

Cook and serve

  1. Heat a non-stick pan over medium heat and add a little butter.

  2. Pour the egg mixture into the pan and cook until the edges set.

  3. Gently lift the edges with a spatula and let the uncooked egg flow underneath.

  4. When the top is slightly set, fold the omelet in half 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. Chervil + chivetop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together370 recipes

    Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).

  2. Chervil + garden cresstop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together16 recipes

    Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).

  3. Parsley + cherviltop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together774 recipes

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

  4. Parsley + peppertop 2% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together34,122 recipes

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

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

    Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).

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

What each ingredient does

Eggs
Set into the structure of the omelette as they cook, holding the herbs together.
Parsley
Adds fresh, green flavour and aroma to the eggs.
Chives
Add a mild onion-like flavour and fresh aroma.
Chervil
Contributes a delicate, light anise-like aroma.
Garden cress
Adds a peppery, fresh bite and aroma to the eggs.

The step that matters

Lifting the edges and letting the egg flow. Egg proteins set quickly when heated, so moving the edges lets the still-liquid egg reach the hot pan and cook into soft, even curds. Leaving it still too long makes the omelette tough and rubbery, and folding before the top is slightly set can leave it wet inside.

Swap the garden cress

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

  1. Tarragonfits better
  2. Capersfits better
  3. Dillfits about as well
  4. Garden cressthe original

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