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Chow-Gan, or Chinese Omelet

A Chinese-style omelet filled with ham or pork, peas, tomatoes, onions, shallots, and mushrooms.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 12 ingredients
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Why it works: Tomato and onion are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 8% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 20,633 recipes. Both carry 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine, which smells earthy, pea. The science ↓

Chow-Gan, or Chinese Omelet

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. Separate the yolks and whites of the eggs.

  2. Mix each yolk with ½ cup milk and 2 tablespoons cornstarch.

  3. Season both mixtures with salt, white pepper, and Worcestershire sauce.

  4. Prepare the filling by combining minced ham or pork, green peas, sliced tomatoes, chopped onion, shallot, and sliced mushrooms.

Cook and serve

  1. Cook the egg mixtures in a skillet until set, then fill with the prepared mixture and fold.

  2. 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. Tomato + oniontop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together20,633 recipes

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

  2. Peas + tomatotop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,058 recipes

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

  3. Peas + oniontop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together5,460 recipes

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

  4. Sauce + tomatotop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together5,469 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).

  5. Milk + tomatotop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together2,226 recipes

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

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

What each ingredient does

Eggs
Whites and yolks set into the structure of the omelet when cooked.
Cornstarch
Thickens the milk and yolk mixture so it sets more softly and holds its filling.
Milk
Adds moisture and tenderness to the egg mixture.
Boiled ham or roast pork
Provides savory, meaty flavor to the filling.

The step that matters

Cook the egg mixtures in a skillet until set. Egg proteins set with heat, and cooking too hot or too long makes the omelet tough and dry, while underheating leaves it runny and unable to hold the filling when folded.

Swap the white pepper

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (egg, milk, sauce, ham, peas, tomato, onion):

  1. Capersfits better
  2. Garlicfits better
  3. Celeryfits better
  4. White pepperthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against egg, milk, sauce, ham, peas, tomato, onion. 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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