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Nettie'5 Omelet

A fluffy omelet made with eggs, milk, butter, and a pinch of baking soda.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 6 ingredients
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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 ↓

Nettie'5 Omelet

Oven, in the book's wordsA hot oven

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the eggs

  1. Separate the egg yolks and whites.

  2. Beat the yolks and mix in the milk, salt, and pepper.

  3. Whip the egg whites until stiff and fold them into the yolk mixture.

Cook and serve

  1. Heat a frying pan and add a tablespoon of butter.

  2. Pour the omelet mixture into the pan and add a pinch of baking soda.

  3. When the edges firm up, cut through the middle and fold the omelet.

  4. Shake the pan to loosen the omelet, then slide it onto a hot platter and 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. Milk + buttertop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together81,283 recipes

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

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

    Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).

  3. Egg + milktop 18% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together88,785 recipes

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

  4. Pepper + buttertop 21% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together85,593 recipes

    Shared aroma: trans-2-nonenal (cardboard, fatty).

  5. Milk + peppertop 22% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together26,984 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl 2-methylbutyrate (fruity, apple).

Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs

What each ingredient does

Eggs
Whipped whites give the omelet a light, airy structure, while the yolks add richness and set when cooked.
Milk
Adds moisture and softness, keeping the omelet tender rather than dry.
Baking soda
Raises the mixture slightly and helps the omelet puff in the pan.
Butter
Adds fat for flavor and keeps the omelet from sticking to the pan.

The step that matters

Pour the omelet mixture into the pan and add a pinch of baking soda.. Whipped egg whites deflate quickly if overworked or left standing. Cooking the mixture promptly over steady heat sets the foam while it is still airy, so the omelet stays light.

“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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