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Omelet with Herbs

A simple omelet flavored with parsley and chives, cooked in butter.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 4 ingredients
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Why it works: Parsley and chive match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 3% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 2,150 recipes. Both carry coumarin, which smells sweet, hay. The science ↓

Omelet with Herbs

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the eggs

  1. Beat the eggs in a bowl until well mixed.

  2. Add the chopped parsley and chives to the eggs and mix well.

Cook the omelet

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

  2. Pour the egg mixture into the pan and cook until half done.

  3. Add a piece of butter the size of a nutmeg to prevent sticking.

  4. Finish cooking the omelet and serve.

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 + chivetop 3% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together2,150 recipes

    Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).

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

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

  3. Chive + buttertop 16% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together2,097 recipes

    Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).

  4. Egg + buttertop 17% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together118,967 recipes

    Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).

  5. Egg + chivetop 19% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,624 recipes

    Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).

Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs

What each ingredient does

Eggs
Provide the structure, as their proteins set into a tender body when heated.
Parsley
Adds fresh, herbal aroma and a green flavor to the eggs.
Chives
Add a mild onion-like aroma and a fresh bite to the omelet.
Butter
Adds richness and flavor, and a layer of fat that keeps the omelet from sticking.

The step that matters

Cook over medium heat. Eggs turn tough and rubbery when heated too fast, because their proteins tighten and squeeze out water. Medium heat lets the omelet set gently and stay tender.

Swap the parsley

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

  1. Capersfits better
  2. Tarragonfits about as well
  3. Parsleythe original
  4. Nutmegfits less well

Fit is the average pairing score against egg, chive, 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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