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Omelette with Herbs

A quick omelette flavored with parsley and butter.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 5 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 ↓

Omelette with Herbs

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. Beat the eggs with the milk, salt, and parsley until well combined.

Cook and serve

  1. Heat the butter in a frying pan over medium heat until browned.

  2. Pour the egg mixture into the pan and let it sit for a moment.

  3. Gently lift the edges with a fork and shake the pan to prevent sticking.

  4. Cook for about 5 minutes until golden brown, then fold the omelette in half.

  5. Serve immediately on a hot dish.

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

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

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

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

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 omelette as they cook.
Butter
Adds richness and browns the pan for flavour and colour.
Milk
Adds moisture, keeping the eggs soft and tender as they set.

The step that matters

Gently lift the edges with a fork and shake the pan to prevent sticking. Eggs stick and scorch when they contact the hot pan without movement. Lifting the edges lets uncooked egg flow beneath and cook evenly, keeping the omelette tender rather than tough.

Swap the parsley

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

  1. Nutmegfits better
  2. Cinnamonfits better
  3. Parsleythe original
  4. Tarragonfits less well

Fit is the average pairing score against egg, milk, 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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