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Tomato Omelet

A savory omelet made with tomatoes, eggs, and breadcrumbs.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 4 ingredients
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Why it works: Bread and butter 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

Prepare

  1. Peel and finely chop the tomatoes.

  2. In a bowl, combine the tomatoes, bread or cracker crumbs, and beaten eggs.

  3. Heat a small piece of butter in a frying pan.

Cook

  1. Pour the mixture into the pan and stir rapidly until it begins to thicken.

  2. Let it brown, then fold the omelet.

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. Bread + buttertop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together27,232 recipes

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

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

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

  3. Bread + eggtop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together22,662 recipes

    Shared aroma: (e)-2-octenal (fatty, green).

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

    Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).

  5. Tomato + buttertop 22% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together6,918 recipes

    Shared aroma: 3-hexenal (apple, fruity).

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

What each ingredient does

Eggs
Set and bind the mixture into a tender, cohesive omelet.
Tomatoes
Add moisture and acidity, giving the omelet a juicy, tangy flavor.
Bread or cracker crumbs
Absorb liquid from the tomatoes and eggs, helping the omelet hold together.
Butter
Adds fat for browning and a rich flavor in the pan.

The step that matters

Stir rapidly until it begins to thicken. Stirring keeps the egg proteins moving so they form small, soft curds. If the mixture is left still too long, it sets into a single rubbery layer and can scorch before it is cooked through.

Swap the tomato

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

  1. Asparagusfits better
  2. Leekfits better
  3. Chivefits better
  4. Tomatothe original

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