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Plain Omelet

A simple egg omelet made with flour, milk, butter, salt, and pepper.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 6 ingredients
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Why it works: Milk and butter are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 7% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 81,283 recipes. Both carry (z)-4-heptenal, which smells biscuit, cream. The science ↓

Plain Omelet

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the batter

  1. Break the eggs into a large bowl and beat them thoroughly.

  2. Season with salt and pepper.

  3. In a small cup, mix the flour smoothly with the milk.

  4. Pour the flour mixture into the bowl with the eggs and beat well.

Cook and serve

  1. Heat a frying pan and melt the butter in it.

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

  3. Carefully turn the omelet and serve hot.

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. Milk + buttertop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together81,283 recipes

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

  2. Flour + buttertop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together124,287 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  3. Flour + milktop 14% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together78,219 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  4. Egg + flourtop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together106,462 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  5. Egg + buttertop 17% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together118,967 recipes

    Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).

Flour and butter 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

Eggs
Provide the main structure, setting into a soft, tender body as they cook.
All-purpose flour
Thickens the milk and eggs so the omelet holds together and stays tender.
Milk
Adds moisture and softness, keeping the omelet tender rather than dry.
Butter
Greases the pan and adds richness and flavor to the omelet.

The step that matters

Cook until set in the middle. Egg proteins coagulate with heat, so cooking gently until just set keeps the omelet tender. Overcooking makes eggs firm, dry and rubbery.

“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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