Name: Baked Omelet
Ingredients: 4 eggs; 2 tablespoons flour; salt to taste; ½ egg-sized piece of butter, melted

Why it works: Flour and butter are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 12% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 124,287 recipes. Both carry isobutyraldehyde, which smells malty, green. The science ↓

Baked Omelet

Oven, in the book's wordsA quick oven

Ingredients

4 eggs
2 tablespoons flour
salt to taste
½ egg-sized piece of butter, melted

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 batter

Separate the yolks and whites of the eggs.
Mix the flour and salt into the beaten yolks thoroughly.
Stir in the melted butter.
Beat the egg whites to stiff peaks and gently fold them into the yolk mixture.

Bake and serve

Pour the mixture into a buttered dish.
Bake in a 400°F (200°C) oven 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.

Flour + buttertop 12% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked together124,287 recipes

Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
Egg + flourtop 15% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked together106,462 recipes

Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
Egg + buttertop 17% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together118,967 recipes

Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).

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 trapped as stiff peaks give the omelet its light, airy structure as it bakes.
Flour: Provides starch that helps the batter hold its shape and set after baking.
Butter: Adds richness and fat, contributing flavor and a tender texture to the omelet.