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German Omelet

A savory omelet with bacon, parsley, and cream, cooked slowly in butter.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 6 ingredients
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Why it works: Cream and butter are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 8% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 41,516 recipes. Both carry delta-dodecalactone, which smells sweet, creamy. The science ↓

German Omelet

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. Beat the eggs and cream together, then mix in the parsley.

  2. Simmer the bacon in boiling water for 5 minutes.

Cook the omelet

  1. In a frying pan, melt a piece of butter the size of a hickory nut until browned.

  2. Pour in a thin layer of the egg mixture, add the bacon, then pour in the remaining egg mixture.

  3. Cook over low heat until it begins to stiffen, then turn using a lid to flip it.

  4. Slide it back into the pan and brown the other side.

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. Cream + buttertop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together41,516 recipes

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

  2. Parsley + buttertop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together28,563 recipes

    Shared aroma: trans-2-hexenal (green, leafy).

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

    Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).

  4. Egg + parsleytop 21% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together18,765 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2,4-decadienal (seaweed).

  5. Egg + creamtop 24% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together42,166 recipes

    Shared aroma: acetic acid (sour, vinegar).

Egg and cream barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 42,166 recipes: they work on texture and structure more than aroma.

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.
Cream or rich milk
Adds moisture and richness, keeping the eggs tender rather than dry.
Bacon
Adds savory fat and flavor to the filling.
Butter
Fat for frying that adds flavor and browns the surface.

The step that matters

Cook over low heat until it begins to stiffen. Eggs cooked over high heat toughen and brown before the center sets. Gentle heat lets the omelet set evenly and stay tender before it is turned.

Swap the parsley

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

  1. Nutmegfits better
  2. Tarragonfits about as well
  3. Capersfits about as well
  4. Parsleythe original

Fit is the average pairing score against egg, cream, 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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