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The Dewey Cook Book

A tomato omelet made with eggs, milk, butter, onion juice, salt, pepper, and cayenne.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
By Young Men's Christian Association (Montpelier, Vt.). Women of the Auxiliary · From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 8 ingredients
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Why it works: Milk and butter are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 7% of all ingredient pairs, and 81,283 recipes mention both. Both carry (z)-4-heptenal, which smells biscuit, cream. The science ↓

The Dewey Cook Book

Ingredients

Directions

Make the mixture

  1. Beat eggs and milk together slightly.

  2. Season with salt and pepper.

  3. Add diced tomato pieces.

  4. Add onion juice.

Cook the omelet

  1. Put butter in a chafing dish and heat until hot.

  2. Add the mixture to the hot butter.

  3. Hold the dish above the flame, scrape the bottom to keep from burning.

Finish

  1. Season with cayenne and serve.

By Young Men's Christian Association (Montpelier, Vt.). Women of the Auxiliary. 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. See the original page.

Explore the science

The flavor team

The pairs that carry this dish. Each one is judged two ways: how much aroma chemistry they share, and how many recipes mention both.

  1. Milk + buttertop 7% of all pairs
    Aroma overlapmoderate
    Mentioned together81,283 recipes

    Shared aroma: (z)-4-heptenal (biscuit, cream).

  2. Pepper + tomatotop 7% of all pairs
    Aroma overlapmoderate
    Mentioned together17,923 recipes

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

  3. Onion + tomatotop 8% of all pairs
    Aroma overlapmoderate
    Mentioned together20,633 recipes

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

  4. Onion + peppertop 11% of all pairs
    Aroma overlapmoderate
    Mentioned together68,474 recipes

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

  5. Butter + oniontop 15% of all pairs
    Aroma overlapmoderate
    Mentioned together42,912 recipes

    Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).

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

What each ingredient does

Milk
Adds moisture, so the beaten egg cooks into a softer, more tender omelet.
Butter
Adds fat that keeps the egg from sticking and gives a rich, lightly browned flavor.
Tomato
Adds moisture and a fresh acidity that brightens the eggs.
Onion juice
Adds a sharp aroma that flavors the eggs without adding solid bits.

The step that matters

Hold the dish above the flame and scrape the bottom. Egg proteins set quickly when they touch hot metal. Moving the mixture over the heat and scraping the bottom keeps the curds soft and prevents the underside from scorching before the top sets.

Flavor stand-ins for the onion

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (milk, butter, pepper, tomato):

  1. Capsicumbetter flavor fit
  2. Potatobetter flavor fit
  3. Carrotabout as good a flavor fit
  4. Onionthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against milk, butter, pepper, tomato. Candidates are from the same food group and used in at least 100 recipes. This compares flavor only: it does not check the job the ingredient does in the dish (bulk, moisture, acidity, structure).

“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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