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Omelet Puff

A light, puffed omelet made with separated eggs, milk, butter, flour, and salt.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 6 ingredients
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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 ↓

Omelet Puff

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the batter

  1. Beat the yolks of the eggs very lightly.

  2. Mix the yolks with the milk and salt in a bowl.

  3. In another bowl, beat the butter with the flour until smooth.

  4. Add the egg mixture to the flour and beat the whole mixture together.

Cook and serve

  1. Pour the mixture into a buttered omelet or small frying pan.

  2. When it begins to thicken, pour the stiffly beaten egg whites over it.

  3. Dust lightly with salt and cook until the whole is firm.

  4. Carefully remove to a dish without breaking.

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. Milk + buttertop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together81,283 recipes

    Shared aroma: (z)-4-heptenal (biscuit, cream).

  2. Butter + flourtop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together124,287 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  3. Milk + flourtop 14% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together78,219 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  4. Egg + flourtop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together106,462 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

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

    Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).

Butter and flour 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
Yolks thicken the batter and whites, beaten stiff, give the puff its light, airy lift.
Flour
Provides structure, so the set mixture holds its shape when removed from the pan.
Milk
Adds moisture and softness to the batter, loosening it for even setting.
Sweet butter
Adds richness and flavor, and keeps the mixture from sticking to the pan.

The step that matters

Pouring the stiffly beaten egg whites over the thickening batter. Whites must be beaten stiff to trap air that lifts the puff. If the batter is too thin or too thick when they go in, the whites fold unevenly or sink, so the puff rises poorly and sets dense.

“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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