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Spanish Omelette

A savory omelette with lamb kidney, ham, mushrooms, chili, onion, parsley, bay leaf, tomatoes, stock, eggs, flour, milk, pepper, salt, fried in oil or butter.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 15 ingredients
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Why it works: Mushroom and tomato are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 7% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 2,719 recipes. Both carry 1-octen-3-one, which smells mushroom, metallic. The science ↓

Spanish Omelette

Ingredients

Directions

Make the filling

  1. Fry the sliced kidney in olive oil or butter.

  2. Add chopped ham, mushrooms, chili, onion, parsley, and bay leaf; cook until softened.

  3. Stir in tomatoes and clear stock; simmer gently for 30 minutes.

Cook the omelette

  1. Whip the egg whites and yolks separately, then combine with flour, milk, pepper, and salt.

  2. Pour the egg mixture into a buttered pan and cook lightly.

  3. Before folding the omelette, pour the sauce over it.

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. Mushroom + tomatotop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together2,719 recipes

    Shared aroma: 1-octen-3-one (mushroom, metallic).

  2. Onion + tomatotop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together20,633 recipes

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

  3. Parsley + tomatotop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together5,398 recipes

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

  4. Onion + parsleytop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together25,843 recipes

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

  5. Mushroom + oniontop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together10,626 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
Whipped whites and yolks set into the light, structured body of the omelette.
Flour
Helps stabilise the egg mixture so it holds together when folded.
Tomatoes
Add acidity and moisture to the sauce that is poured over the omelette.
Clear stock
Provides liquid and savoury depth to the simmered sauce.
Onion
Builds sweetness and aroma as it softens in the pan.

The step that matters

Whipping the egg whites and yolks separately. Whipped whites hold air that gives the omelette lift, while yolks add richness. Overbeating or deflating the whites makes the omelette dense and flat.

Swap the onion

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (lamb, ham, mushroom, parsley, tomato, egg, flour):

  1. Shallotfits better
  2. Asparagusfits better
  3. Spinachfits better
  4. Onionthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against lamb, ham, mushroom, parsley, tomato, egg, flour. 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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