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Ham Omelet

A baked omelet made with eggs, milk, flour, butter, ham, parsley, and thyme.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 8 ingredients
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Why it works: Parsley and thyme match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 9,057 recipes. Both carry cuminaldehyde, which smells Spicy, cumin. The science ↓

Ham Omelet

Oven, in the book's wordsA quick oven

Ingredients

Directions

The book says “a quick oven”. The 400°F (200°C) in the steps is the modern equivalent, not the book's own figure.

Prepare the base

  1. Beat the eggs separately.

  2. In a small bowl, stir the flour into ¼ cup of the milk.

  3. Bring the remaining milk to a boil, then stir in the flour mixture.

  4. Add the salt and butter, then let it cool.

Assemble and bake

  1. Mix the minced ham, parsley, and thyme with the egg yolks, then fold in the beaten egg whites.

  2. Grease a skillet and pour in the mixture.

  3. Bake in a preheated oven at 400°F (200°C) until set.

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. Parsley + thymetop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together9,057 recipes

    Shared aroma: cuminaldehyde (Spicy, cumin).

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

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

  3. Flour + buttertop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together124,287 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  4. Flour + parsleytop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together16,675 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  5. Flour + thymetop 14% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together5,721 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

Flour and butter barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 124,287 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
Whites trap air for lift, and yolks add richness and set the custard-like structure.
Flour
Thickens the milk into a smooth base that holds the omelette together.
Sweet milk
Adds moisture and tenderness, diluting the egg so it stays soft rather than rubbery.
Butter
Adds fat for richness and a softer texture in the finished omelette.
Minced ham
Contributes savoury flavour and salt-cured aroma throughout the omelette.

The step that matters

Folding in the beaten egg whites. Whites hold air only when beaten to stiff peaks and folded gently; stirring them in deflates the foam and leaves a dense, flat omelette.

Swap the thyme

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

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

Fit is the average pairing score against egg, milk, flour, butter, ham, parsley. 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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