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Washington Omelet

A fluffy omelet made with milk-soaked bread crumbs and eggs, fried in butter.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 6 ingredients
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Why it works: Bread and butter are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 7% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 27,232 recipes. Both carry delta-decalactone, which smells sweet, creamy. The science ↓

Washington Omelet

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the base

  1. Bring the milk to a boil.

  2. Pour the hot milk over the bread crumbs and let stand for a few minutes.

  3. Break the eggs in a bowl and stir until well mixed.

  4. Add the milk and bread mixture to the eggs and mix well.

  5. Season with salt and pepper.

Cook and serve

  1. Melt the butter in a hot skillet.

  2. Pour the mixture into the skillet and fry slowly.

  3. Cut the omelet into squares.

  4. Turn the squares and fry until golden brown.

  5. Serve immediately.

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. Bread + buttertop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together27,232 recipes

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

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

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

  3. Milk + breadtop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together11,466 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-undecenal (sweet).

  4. Bread + eggtop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together22,662 recipes

    Shared aroma: (e)-2-octenal (fatty, green).

  5. Bread + peppertop 16% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together20,964 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
Set into the structure of the omelet as they cook, holding it together.
Bread crumbs
Soak up hot milk and add body, giving the omelet a softer, more tender texture.
Milk
Softens the bread crumbs and adds moisture so the omelet stays tender.
Butter
Coats the skillet and adds fat for flavor and golden browning on the surface.

The step that matters

Fry the mixture slowly. Eggs proteins set from the outside in. High heat browns and toughens the bottom before the center sets, so slow frying keeps the omelet tender and evenly cooked.

“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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