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Ham Omelette

A quick omelette made with eggs, salt, pepper, diced cooked ham, and butter.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 5 ingredients
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Why it works: Ham and butter are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 16% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 5,475 recipes. Both carry trans-2-decenal, which smells waxy, orange. The science ↓

Ham Omelette

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. In a bowl, beat the eggs with salt and pepper.

  2. Heat a skillet over medium heat and add butter.

Cook and serve

  1. Pour in the egg mixture and cook until the edges start to set.

  2. Add the diced ham to one half of the omelette.

  3. Fold the omelette in half and cook until fully set.

  4. Serve hot.

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 + buttertop 16% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together5,475 recipes

    Shared aroma: trans-2-decenal (waxy, orange).

  2. Egg + hamtop 17% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together4,526 recipes

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

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

    Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).

  4. Pepper + buttertop 21% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together85,593 recipes

    Shared aroma: trans-2-nonenal (cardboard, fatty).

  5. Pepper + hamtop 23% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together6,058 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
Set into the structure of the omelette as they cook, holding it together when folded.
Cooked ham
Adds savory flavor and chew to the filling inside the folded eggs.
Butter
Adds richness and helps keep the eggs from sticking to the skillet.

The step that matters

Fold the omelette in half and cook until fully set. Eggs cook quickly over heat, so pulling them off too early leaves the center runny, while cooking too long makes them tough and rubbery. Gentle heat and watching for the surface to lose its glossy wetness helps achieve a tender, fully set result.

“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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