Name: Omelette Au Rhum
Ingredients: 3 large eggs; ½ cup Jamaica rum; 2 tablespoons powdered sugar; a pinch of salt

Why it works: Rum and sugar are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 14% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 2,908 recipes. Both carry beta-damascenone, which smells apple, rose. The science ↓

Omelette Au Rhum

Ingredients

3 large eggs
½ cup Jamaica rum
2 tablespoons powdered sugar
a pinch of salt

Directions

Separate the egg yolks and whites.
Add salt and sugar to the yolks, then mix in milk and flour.
Beat the egg whites until soft peaks form, then gently fold into the yolk mixture.
Cook the omelet in a greased skillet until set.
Transfer to an oven-safe dish, sprinkle with powdered sugar, and drizzle with rum.
Place under the broiler for a few minutes until the sugar caramelizes.

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.

Rum + sugartop 14% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked together2,908 recipes

Shared aroma: beta-damascenone (apple, rose).
Egg + sugartop 21% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together122,807 recipes

Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).
Egg + rumtop 27% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together1,589 recipes

Shared aroma: 2,4-decadienal (seaweed).