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 ↓
Cheese Omelet
Ingredients
Directions
Make the filling
Beat the eggs in a bowl until well mixed.
Add the milk and 2 tablespoons of grated cheese to the eggs and mix well.
Cook and serve
Heat a skillet over medium heat and add butter to coat the bottom.
Pour the egg mixture into the skillet and cook until the edges begin to set.
Sprinkle a little more cheese on top before folding the omelet in half.
Carefully slide the omelet onto a hot dish and grate additional cheese over it before serving.
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.
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Milk + buttertop 7% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together81,283 recipes
Shared aroma: (z)-4-heptenal (biscuit, cream).
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Cheese + buttertop 8% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together7,962 recipes
Shared aroma: delta-dodecalactone (sweet, creamy).
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Milk + cheesetop 10% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together4,426 recipes
Shared aroma: delta-dodecalactone (sweet, creamy).
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Egg + buttertop 17% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together118,967 recipes
Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).
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Egg + milktop 18% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together88,785 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 a structure that holds the omelet together when cooked.
- Milk
- Adds moisture and makes the egg mixture softer and more tender.
- Grated cheese
- Adds richness and flavor, and melts to bind the folded omelet.
- Butter
- Coats the skillet to prevent sticking and adds a rich flavor.
The step that matters
Cook until the edges just begin to set. Egg proteins set with heat, so pulling the omelet off the heat while the center is still slightly moist keeps it tender. Overcooking makes it rubbery and dry.
“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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