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Tomato Omelet

A savory omelet made with tomatoes, onions, butter, and eggs.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 7 ingredients
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Why it works: Tomato and pepper are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 7% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 17,923 recipes. Both carry 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine, which smells earthy, pea. The science ↓

Tomato Omelet

Ingredients

Directions

Make the tomato sauce

  1. In a pot, combine the chopped tomatoes, chopped onions, butter, salt, pepper, and crushed cracker.

  2. Cover and simmer for 1 hour.

Cook the omelet

  1. Beat the eggs until frothy.

  2. Heat a griddle and pour the eggs into the tomato mixture.

  3. Cook until browned on one side, then fold and brown on the other side.

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 + peppertop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together17,923 recipes

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

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

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

  3. Onion + peppertop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together68,474 recipes

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

  4. Onion + buttertop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together42,912 recipes

    Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).

  5. Butter + eggtop 17% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together118,967 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

Tomatoes
Provide the main body, moisture and acidic flavor of the sauce.
Eggs
Set when cooked to bind the omelet and give it a tender, airy structure.
Onions
Add savory sweetness and aroma as they soften during simmering.
Butter
Adds richness and helps the onions and sauce cook smoothly with browning.
Cracker
Crushed crackers thicken the tomato sauce by absorbing liquid and adding body.

The step that matters

Simmering the tomato mixture for a full hour. Long simmering softens the onions and concentrates the tomatoes, so the sauce is thick enough to hold the egg. Too little time leaves it watery and the omelet may fall apart.

Swap the tomato

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

  1. Chivefits better
  2. Potatofits better
  3. Capsicumfits better
  4. Tomatothe original

Fit is the average pairing score against onion, butter, pepper, egg. 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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