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Asparagus Omelet

A lightly cooked egg dish with boiled asparagus pieces.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
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Why it works: Asparagus and egg are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 17% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 1,338 recipes. Both carry 2-nonenal, which smells fatty, green. The science ↓

Asparagus Omelet

Oven, in the book's wordsA hot oven

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. Boil the asparagus with a little salt until half cooked, then cut the edible part into small pieces.

  2. Beat the eggs in a bowl and mix in the asparagus pieces.

Cook and serve

  1. Heat butter in a frying pan.

  2. Pour in the egg and asparagus mixture.

  3. Cook until set.

  4. Fold the omelet.

  5. Serve warm.

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. Asparagus + eggtop 17% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,338 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).

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

    Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).

  3. Asparagus + buttertop 17% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together2,026 recipes

    Shared aroma: trans-2-nonenal (cardboard, fatty).

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

What each ingredient does

Eggs
Set to form the structure of the omelet as they cook.
Asparagus
Adds texture and body to the omelet filling.
Butter
Adds richness and helps prevent the omelet from sticking to the pan.

The step that matters

Cook until set. Eggs cook quickly and turn rubbery if overcooked. Cooking gently until just set keeps the omelet tender and moist.

Swap the asparagus

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

  1. Asparagusthe original
  2. Chivefits about as well
  3. Leekfits about as well
  4. Potatofits less well

Fit is the average pairing score against egg, 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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