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Omelette Aux Fines Herbes

A light omelette made with eggs, chives, parsley, and chervil, seasoned with salt and pepper.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 6 ingredients
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Why it works: Chive and chervil match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 370 recipes. Both carry coumarin, which smells sweet, hay. The science ↓

Omelette Aux Fines Herbes

Ingredients

Directions

The book gives no cooking times; the times in the steps were added in transcription, so check for doneness rather than trusting the clock.

Prepare the mixture

  1. In a bowl, mix the egg yolks with the chopped herbs.

  2. In another bowl, beat the egg whites until stiff peaks form.

  3. Gently fold the beaten egg whites into the herb and yolk mixture.

Cook and serve

  1. Heat butter in a skillet over medium heat.

  2. Pour the mixture into the skillet and cook until set, about 2-3 minutes.

  3. Fold the omelet in half 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. Chive + cherviltop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together370 recipes

    Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).

  2. Parsley + cherviltop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together774 recipes

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

  3. Parsley + peppertop 2% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together34,122 recipes

    Shared aroma: 4'-methylacetophenone (bitter almond).

  4. Chive + parsleytop 3% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together2,150 recipes

    Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).

  5. Chervil + peppertop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together867 recipes

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

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 omelette its light, airy structure, while the yolks add richness.
Chives
Add a mild onion-like aroma and fresh flavour to the eggs.
Parsley
Adds fresh, green flavour and aroma to the eggs.
Chervil
Contributes a delicate, mildly anise-like aroma to the eggs.

The step that matters

Folding the beaten whites into the yolk mixture. Whites hold air only when beaten to stiff peaks, and gentle folding keeps that air in. Vigorous stirring deflates the foam, leaving a dense, flat omelette.

Swap the parsley

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

  1. Tarragonfits better
  2. Capersfits better
  3. Parsleythe original
  4. Thymefits less well

Fit is the average pairing score against egg, chive, chervil, pepper, 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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