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Tomato Omelet

A baked tomato and egg mixture with bread crumbs and butter.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 7 ingredients
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Why it works: Butter and bread are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 7% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 27,232 recipes. Both carry delta-decalactone, which smells sweet, creamy. The science ↓

Tomato Omelet

Ingredients

Directions

The book gives no oven temperature. The 350°F (175°C) in the steps was added when the recipe was transcribed, as a starting point.

Prepare the tomatoes

  1. Pour boiling water over the tomatoes, then skin and finely chop them.

  2. In a pot, combine the tomatoes, onions, and butter; boil for 30 minutes.

Make the mixture

  1. Mash the mixture, then stir in the bread crumbs, pepper, salt, and beaten egg yolks.

Bake and serve

  1. Transfer to a baking dish, sprinkle a thick layer of bread crumbs on top, and bake at 350°F (175°C) until golden brown.

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. Butter + breadtop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together27,232 recipes

    Shared aroma: delta-decalactone (sweet, creamy).

  2. Tomato + peppertop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together17,923 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).

  3. Tomato + oniontop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together20,633 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).

  4. Tomato + breadtop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,013 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).

  5. Onion + peppertop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together68,474 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).

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

What each ingredient does

Tomatoes
Break down into a moist, flavorful base that forms the body of the omelet.
Egg yolks
Bind the mixture and set during baking to give it a custardy, cohesive texture.
Bread crumbs
Absorb moisture and thicken the mixture, and brown on top for a golden crust.
Onions
Add savory sweetness and aroma as they soften during the long simmer.
Butter
Adds richness and fat, carrying flavor and helping the onions soften.

The step that matters

Mashing and mixing in the egg yolks. Egg yolks set when heated, so they must be fully blended into the warm tomato mixture. Stirring in the yolks evenly prevents streaks of raw yolk and gives a uniform, cohesive texture after baking.

Swap the onion

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

  1. Capsicumfits better
  2. Asparagusfits better
  3. Potatofits better
  4. Onionthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against tomato, butter, bread, pepper, egg. 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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