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Scrambled Eggs with Tomato

A quick egg scramble cooked with tomato, onion, butter, and salt.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 5 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 ↓

Scrambled Eggs with Tomato

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. Peel and chop the tomato and onion finely.

Cook

  1. Melt the butter in a hot saucepan.

  2. Add the tomato and onion, season with salt, and cook until soft.

  3. Pour in the beaten eggs and stir quickly until nearly set.

Serve

  1. Serve immediately on a hot dish.

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

    Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).

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

    Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).

  4. Tomato + buttertop 22% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together6,918 recipes

    Shared aroma: 3-hexenal (apple, fruity).

  5. Onion + eggtop 34% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together23,333 recipes

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

Onion and egg barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 23,333 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 soft curds that give the scrambled dish its structure and body.
Tomato
Adds moisture and a light acidity that balances the richness of the eggs.
Butter
Adds fat for richness and keeps the eggs from sticking as they cook.
Onion
Contributes savory sweetness and aroma as it softens in the pan.

The step that matters

Pour in the beaten eggs and stir quickly until nearly set. Eggs turn from liquid to curds within seconds over heat, and proteins that overcook become tough and dry. Removing the pan from the heat while the eggs still look slightly wet lets residual heat finish them gently.

Swap the tomato

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

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

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