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Swifts Ham Omelet

A quick omelette made with ham, eggs, salt, pepper, and lard.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 5 ingredients
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Why it works: Ham and egg are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 17% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 4,526 recipes. Both carry 2,4-decadienal, which smells seaweed. The science ↓

Swifts Ham Omelet

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. Beat the eggs until thick.

  2. Add salt and pepper to the eggs.

  3. Heat the lard in a hot pan.

Cook and serve

  1. Combine the egg mixture with the ham squares and spread evenly in the pan.

  2. Cook for about 4 minutes.

  3. Slip a knife around the edges, fold the omelet, and serve.

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

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

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

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

  3. Egg + peppertop 33% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together50,580 recipes

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

Egg and pepper barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 50,580 recipes: they work on texture and structure more than aroma.

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

What each ingredient does

Eggs
Set into a structure that holds the ham and gives the omelette its body.
Premium ham
Adds savoury flavour and salty, meaty bite to the filling.
Silver leaf lard
Fat in the hot pan that keeps the eggs from sticking and promotes gentle browning.

The step that matters

Cooking the egg mixture over heat. Eggs set quickly as they cook, so the pan must be hot enough to set them but not so hot they scorch. Spreading the mixture evenly lets it cook at a uniform rate, so the omelette sets without drying out in patches.

“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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