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Asparagus Omelet

A quick egg-based dish with cooked asparagus, parsley, salt, pepper, and butter.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 6 ingredients
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Why it works: Parsley and pepper match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 2% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 34,122 recipes. Both carry 4'-methylacetophenone, which smells bitter almond. The science ↓

Asparagus Omelet

Oven, in the book's wordsA hot oven

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. Beat the eggs in a bowl and season with salt and pepper.

  2. Mix in the chopped asparagus and parsley.

Cook and serve

  1. Melt butter in a frying pan over medium heat.

  2. Pour the egg mixture into the pan and cook until the edges begin to set.

  3. Fold the omelet in half and cook until fully set.

  4. Serve warm.

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

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

  2. Asparagus + parsleytop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together566 recipes

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

  3. Asparagus + peppertop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,968 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).

  4. Parsley + buttertop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together28,563 recipes

    Shared aroma: trans-2-hexenal (green, leafy).

  5. Egg + asparagustop 17% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,338 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 a tender structure that forms the body of the omelet.
Cooked asparagus
Adds vegetable bulk and a green, tender texture to the filling.
Parsley
Adds fresh, herbal aroma and a bright note to the eggs.

The step that matters

Cooking the egg mixture in the pan. Over-high heat or overcooking makes eggs tough and rubbery, while cooking gently until the edges just set keeps the omelet tender and moist as it finishes setting.

Swap the asparagus

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

  1. Shallotfits about as well
  2. Chivefits about as well
  3. Carrotfits about as well
  4. Asparagusthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against egg, parsley, 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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