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Omelet Au Rhum

An omelet flavored with rum, dusted with powdered sugar and flambéed.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 4 ingredients
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Why it works: Rum and butter are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 13% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 1,007 recipes. Both carry delta-decalactone, which smells sweet, creamy. The science ↓

Omelet Au Rhum

Oven, in the book's wordsA warm oven

Ingredients

Directions

Make the omelet

  1. Prepare an omelet by beating the eggs thoroughly.

  2. Fold the omelet and place it on a hot dish.

Finish and serve

  1. Dust a generous amount of powdered sugar over the omelet.

  2. Singe the sugar into neat stripes using a hot iron rod heated on coals.

  3. Pour the warmed rum around the omelet.

  4. At the table, ignite the rum, then dash the burning rum over the omelet.

  5. Blow out the fire 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. Rum + buttertop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,007 recipes

    Shared aroma: delta-decalactone (sweet, creamy).

  2. Rum + sugartop 14% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together2,908 recipes

    Shared aroma: beta-damascenone (apple, rose).

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

    Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).

  4. Sugar + buttertop 17% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together98,233 recipes

    Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).

  5. 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
Beaten eggs set into the structure of the omelet once cooked.
Jamaica rum
Warmed rum is ignited for flavour and a dramatic flame at the table.
Powdered sugar
Melts and caramelises under heat, adding sweetness and a glossy browned finish.
Butter
Fat for frying that adds richness and helps the omelet brown lightly.

The step that matters

Igniting the rum. Warmed rum must be ignited carefully, since alcohol vapour above the liquid catches fire easily and the flame can spread quickly. Keep the rum warm rather than hot, and pour it away from the face and any loose clothing.

“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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