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German Omelet

A savory omelet made with flour, eggs, milk, butter, and seasonings, rolled and served hot.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 10 ingredients
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Why it works: Nutmeg and chive match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 7% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 300 recipes. Both carry coumarin, which smells sweet, hay. The science ↓

German Omelet

Ingredients

Directions

Make the batter

  1. In a bowl, mix flour with eggs and milk until smooth.

  2. Add salt, pepper, nutmeg or cinnamon, and chives; strain through a sieve.

Cook the omelets

  1. Heat butter in an omelet pan and pour in half the mixture, spreading it thin.

  2. Prick the omelet with a fork to help it cook quickly.

  3. Once set, flip the omelet or slide it onto a dish and back into the pan with melted butter.

  4. Cook until golden, then roll it up and place on a paper.

  5. Repeat with the remaining mixture to make a second omelet.

Serve

  1. Serve both omelets side by side on a dish.

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. Nutmeg + chivetop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together300 recipes

    Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).

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

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

  3. Pepper + nutmegtop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together13,015 recipes

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

  4. Flour + chivetop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together1,168 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  5. Flour + nutmegtop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together18,623 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

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

What each ingredient does

Flour
Provides structure, helping the thin batter set into a firm omelet.
Eggs
Set when heated, giving the omelet its body and structure.
Egg yolks
Add richness and tenderness through extra fat and emulsifiers.
Milk or cream
Adds moisture and softness, thinning the batter for a delicate texture.
Butter
Fats the pan and adds flavour and golden browning to the omelet.

The step that matters

Spreading the batter thin and cooking it quickly. A thin layer cooks fast and evenly, so it sets before drying out or browning unevenly. Pricking the surface lets steam escape so it does not puff unevenly.

Swap the chive

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

  1. Capsicumfits about as well
  2. Spinachfits about as well
  3. Potatofits about as well
  4. Chivethe original

Fit is the average pairing score against flour, egg, milk, pepper, nutmeg, butter. 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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