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Spanish Omelet

A fried egg dish with bacon, tomato, onion, and mushrooms.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 9 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 cooks put them together in 81,283 recipes. Both carry (z)-4-heptenal, which smells biscuit, cream. The science ↓

Spanish Omelet

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the filling

  1. Fry the bacon in a pan until brown.

  2. Add the chopped tomato, onion, and mushrooms to the bacon; stir and cook for 15 minutes.

Make the omelette

  1. In a bowl, beat the eggs vigorously for 12 beats; add salt and pepper.

  2. Grease a frying pan with the butter and heat it.

  3. Pour the egg mixture into the hot pan and cook over medium heat until set.

  4. Pour the bacon and vegetable mixture over the omelet, fold it, and serve immediately on a heated platter.

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. Milk + buttertop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together81,283 recipes

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

  2. Tomato + mushroomtop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together2,719 recipes

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

  3. Mushroom + buttertop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together12,525 recipes

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

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

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

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

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

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

What each ingredient does

Eggs
Set into a tender structure that forms the body of the omelette.
Bacon
Releases fat as it fries, adding savoury flavour to the filling and pan.
Milk
Adds moisture and softness to the beaten eggs, keeping the omelette tender.
Onion
Softens and sweetens as it cooks, adding aroma to the filling.
Mushrooms
Release moisture as they cook, adding earthy flavour to the filling.
Tomato
Adds moisture and mild acidity to the filling as it cooks down.

The step that matters

Cook the egg mixture over medium heat until set. High heat sets the eggs too quickly on the outside, making them tough and browned before the centre sets. Medium heat lets the eggs coagulate gently into a tender, even omelette.

Swap the onion

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

  1. Capsicumfits better
  2. Potatofits better
  3. Asparagusfits better
  4. Onionthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against egg, tomato, pepper, milk, mushroom, butter, walnut. 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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