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Omelet with Peas

A quick omelet made with eggs, cream, salt, white pepper, and peas.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 5 ingredients
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Why it works: Egg and white pepper are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 21% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 2,312 recipes. Both carry 2-methylbutyraldehyde, which smells malty, chocolate. The science ↓

Omelet with Peas

Oven, in the book's wordsA rather hot oven

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. Break the eggs into a bowl and beat thoroughly.

  2. Add salt, white pepper, and cream; mix well.

  3. Heat a well-greased skillet over medium heat.

Cook and serve

  1. Pour in the egg mixture and shake the skillet almost continually.

  2. If using, heat the peas (or other vegetables) and add them on top of the omelet.

  3. Roll up the omelet and serve hot.

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. Egg + white peppertop 21% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together2,312 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-methylbutyraldehyde (malty, chocolate).

  2. Egg + peastop 22% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together2,065 recipes

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

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

    Shared aroma: acetic acid (sour, vinegar).

  4. White pepper + creamtop 24% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together1,439 recipes
  5. White pepper + peastop 25% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together252 recipes

    Shared aroma: alpha-terpineol (lilac, floral).

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.
Cream
Adds moisture and richness, keeping the omelet tender.
Cooked peas
Add color, sweetness and a fresh vegetable flavor to the filling.

The step that matters

Shake the skillet almost continually while the eggs cook. Constant movement keeps the egg mixture from sticking and forming a dry, browned layer, and it lets the eggs set into small, tender curds rather than one firm sheet.

Swap the peas

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

  1. Walnutfits about as well
  2. Almondfits about as well
  3. Peasthe original
  4. Pistachiofits about as well

Fit is the average pairing score against egg, white pepper, cream. 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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