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 ↓
Cheese Omelet
Ingredients
Directions
Prepare
Grate the cheese.
In a bowl, beat the eggs and mix in the milk.
Melt butter in a skillet over medium heat.
Cook and serve
Pour the egg mixture into the skillet.
Sprinkle the grated cheese on top.
Cook until the edges are set, then fold the omelet in half.
Serve hot.
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.
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Milk + buttertop 7% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together81,283 recipes
Shared aroma: (z)-4-heptenal (biscuit, cream).
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Cheese + buttertop 8% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together7,962 recipes
Shared aroma: delta-dodecalactone (sweet, creamy).
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Cheese + milktop 10% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together4,426 recipes
Shared aroma: delta-dodecalactone (sweet, creamy).
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Egg + buttertop 17% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together118,967 recipes
Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).
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Egg + milktop 18% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together88,785 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).
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 their proteins coagulate with heat.
- Milk
- Adds moisture and softness, keeping the eggs tender rather than dry.
- Cheese
- Melts into the eggs, adding richness, fat and savory flavor.
- Butter
- Fats the skillet so the omelet releases cleanly and browns lightly, adding flavor.
The step that matters
Cook until the edges are set, then fold the omelet in half.. Egg proteins firm as they heat. Cooking over-long or too hot makes them tight and rubbery, so the omelet should be folded once the edges are set while the center is still moist.
“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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