Name: Small Bread Omelets
Ingredients: crumb of a baker's loaf; cream; pepper; coarse sea salt; grated ham; Rye eggs; butter

Why it works: Cream and butter are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 8% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 41,516 recipes. Both carry delta-dodecalactone, which smells sweet, creamy. The science ↓

Small Bread Omelets

Ingredients

Directions

Place the bread crumbs in a bowl.
Pour enough cream over the crumbs to moisten them into a smooth paste.
Season with pepper, coarse sea salt, and grated ham.
Beat the Rye eggs until thick like batter, then stir into the bread and cream mixture.
Heat butter in a pan, then add a tablespoon of the mixture at a time.
Fry until light brown and 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.

Cream + buttertop 8% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together41,516 recipes

Shared aroma: delta-dodecalactone (sweet, creamy).
Pepper + ryetop 13% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together80 recipes

Shared aroma: ethyl 2-methylbutyrate (fruity, apple).
Ham + buttertop 16% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together5,475 recipes

Shared aroma: trans-2-decenal (waxy, orange).
Ham + eggtop 17% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together4,526 recipes

Shared aroma: 2,4-decadienal (seaweed).
Egg + buttertop 17% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together118,967 recipes

Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).