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Meat Omelet

A quick omelet made with cooked ham, eggs, pepper, and butter.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
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Why it works: Ham and butter are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 16% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 5,475 recipes. Both carry trans-2-decenal, which smells waxy, orange. The science ↓

Meat Omelet

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. Combine the chopped ham and eggs in a bowl.

  2. Add a little pepper and beat the mixture together.

Cook and serve

  1. Heat a frying pan and add a good piece of butter.

  2. Pour the mixture into the hot pan.

  3. When the omelet is set, fold one half over the other and let it stand for a few minutes before serving.

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. Ham + buttertop 16% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together5,475 recipes

    Shared aroma: trans-2-decenal (waxy, orange).

  2. Ham + eggtop 17% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together4,526 recipes

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

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

    Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).

  4. Pepper + buttertop 21% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together85,593 recipes

    Shared aroma: trans-2-nonenal (cardboard, fatty).

  5. Ham + peppertop 23% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together6,058 recipes

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

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 when heated, binding the ham into the omelet.
Cooked ham
Adds savory flavor and chew as the filling inside the omelet.
Butter
Fat that conducts heat for even frying and adds richness and light browning.

The step that matters

Fold when the omelet is just set. Egg proteins firm as they heat. Folding while the surface is just set keeps the omelet tender and prevents cracking. Waiting too long leaves it dry, tough, and rubbery.

“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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