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Omelette Aux HUfTRES

A French omelette filled with fried oysters, parsley, and a buttery egg mixture.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 8 ingredients
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Why it works: Parsley and pepper 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 ↓

Omelette Aux HUfTRES

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the oysters

  1. Dry the oysters thoroughly with a cloth.

  2. Fry the oysters in very hot butter until slightly browned, then keep them warm.

Make the omelette

  1. Beat the yolks and whites of the eggs separately.

  2. Add parsley, salt, pepper, milk, and flour to the yolks, beating until smooth.

  3. Melt 1 tablespoon of butter and mix it into the egg mixture.

  4. Heat a large omelet pan with 2 tablespoons of butter, ensuring it doesn't get too hot.

  5. Pour the egg mixture into the pan and cook until set, then add the fried oysters before folding.

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

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

  2. Butter + milktop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together81,283 recipes

    Shared aroma: (z)-4-heptenal (biscuit, cream).

  3. Butter + flourtop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together124,287 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  4. Flour + parsleytop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together16,675 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  5. Oyster + buttertop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together8,184 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2,6-nonadienal (cucumber, green).

Butter and flour barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 124,287 recipes: they work on texture and structure more than aroma.

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

What each ingredient does

Oysters
Provide the main filling and briny flavor once fried until slightly browned.
Eggs
Form the omelette's structure as the mixture cooks and sets.
Butter
Adds richness and browning when frying the oysters and cooking the omelette.
Flour
Thickens the yolk mixture so it stays smooth and holds together.
Milk
Adds moisture and softness to the egg mixture.

The step that matters

Keep the omelet pan from getting too hot. Eggs cooked over excessive heat turn tough and rubbery and can brown or scorch on the bottom before the centre sets. Gentle heat lets the eggs set evenly and stay tender.

Swap the parsley

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (oyster, butter, flour, egg, milk, pepper):

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

Fit is the average pairing score against oyster, butter, flour, egg, milk, 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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