Name: Baked Omelette, with Herbs
Ingredients: 6 eggs; 3 tablespoons milk; ¼ teaspoon arrowroot; 1 tablespoon butter; 1 tablespoon minced parsley; tender celery tops, finely chopped; 1 slice onion, finely chopped; pepper, to taste; coarse sea salt, to taste

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 custard base

Beat the yolks of the eggs until light.
Stir in the milk and arrowroot until smooth.

Prepare the filling

Melt the butter in a pudding or pie dish.
Mix the melted butter with parsley, celery tops, and onion.
Season the mixture with pepper and salt.
Froth the egg whites.
Mix the yolks and whites together quickly.

Bake and serve

Set the dish in the oven until the butter hisses.
Pour the mixture into the dish.
Close the oven promptly.
Bake until the omelette rises and the middle is set.
Run a knife around the edge of the omelette.
Turn the omelette out onto a hot-water dish.
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.

Parsley + celerytop 1% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together6,810 recipes

Shared aroma: 4'-methylacetophenone (bitter almond).
Parsley + peppertop 2% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together34,122 recipes

Shared aroma: 4'-methylacetophenone (bitter almond).
Celery + peppertop 5% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together16,012 recipes

Shared aroma: 4'-methylacetophenone (bitter almond).
Arrowroot + parsleytop 5% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together137 recipes

Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).
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: Whipped whites trap air so the omelette rises, while the yolks enrich and set the body.
Milk: Adds moisture and softness, keeping the omelette tender rather than dry.
Arrowroot: Starch that thickens the custard base so it holds its shape and stays smooth.
Butter: Fat that coats the dish, helping the omelette release cleanly and adding richness.

The step that matters

Folding the yolks and whites together. Whites hold air only while whipped, so they must be combined quickly and gently. Overmixing knocks out air, and the omelette will rise less and turn out flatter.

Swap the arrowroot

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

Carrotfits better
Potatofits better
Chivefits better
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.

Cream of Celery Soup113 recipes

Arrowroot Gruel37 recipes

Celery Stew25 recipes

Celery Croquettes16 recipes

Like knowing why a recipe works?

The free Flavor Lab newsletter: one surprising pairing a week and the molecular reason it works, in 60 seconds. No spam, unsubscribe anytime.

Prefer an account? Create a free account to save pairings and unlock the full chemistry.

Baked Omelette, with Herbs