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Baked Omelette, with Herbs

A baked omelette flavored with parsley, celery, onion, and seasonings.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 9 ingredients
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Why it works: Parsley and celery match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 6,810 recipes. Both carry 4'-methylacetophenone, which smells bitter almond. The science ↓

Baked Omelette, with Herbs

Oven, in the book's wordsA brisk oven

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the base

  1. Beat the yolks of the eggs until light.

  2. Stir in the milk and arrowroot until smooth.

  3. In a pudding or pie dish, melt the butter.

  4. Mix in the parsley, celery tops, and onion.

  5. Season with pepper and salt.

Whip and bake

  1. Froth the egg whites.

  2. Set the bake dish in the oven until the butter hisses.

  3. Mix the yolks and whites together quickly.

  4. Pour the omelette mixture into the dish and close the oven promptly.

  5. Bake until the omelette rises and the middle is set.

Serve

  1. Run a knife around the edge and turn it out onto a hot-water dish.

  2. 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. Parsley + celerytop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together6,810 recipes

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

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

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

  3. Celery + peppertop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together16,012 recipes

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

  4. Arrowroot + parsleytop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together137 recipes

    Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).

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

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

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

What each ingredient does

Eggs
Whites trapped in foam and set proteins give the omelette its light, risen structure.
Milk
Adds moisture and softness, so the custard-like interior stays tender rather than dry.
Butter
Melted fat in the hot dish helps the base brown and release cleanly, adding richness.
Arrowroot
Starch that thickens the yolk mixture slightly, helping it hold its shape when baked.

The step that matters

Mix the yolks and whites together quickly. Folded egg white foam loses air if it sits or is overworked, and the omelette will not rise well. Combine promptly and then get the mixture into the hot oven.

Swap the arrowroot

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

  1. Carrotfits better
  2. Potatofits better
  3. Chivefits better
  4. Arrowrootthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against egg, milk, butter, parsley, celery, onion, pepper. 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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