Why it works: Bread and butter are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 7% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 27,232 recipes. Both carry delta-decalactone, which smells sweet, creamy. The science ↓
Tomato Omelette
Ingredients
Directions
Prepare the tomatoes
Skin the tomatoes and stew them.
Strain the stewed tomatoes through a sieve.
Make and bake the omelette
Mix the strained tomatoes with bread crumbs, beaten eggs, sweet milk, salt, and pepper.
Grease pans with butter and pour the mixture in.
Bake until brown.
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.
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Bread + buttertop 7% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together27,232 recipes
Shared aroma: delta-decalactone (sweet, creamy).
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Milk + buttertop 7% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together81,283 recipes
Shared aroma: (z)-4-heptenal (biscuit, cream).
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Tomato + peppertop 7% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together17,923 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).
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Tomato + breadtop 10% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together1,013 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).
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Bread + milktop 11% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together11,466 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-undecenal (sweet).
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 and moisture of the omelette, with a fresh, tangy flavour.
- Eggs
- Bind the mixture and set on baking to give the omelette its structure.
- Bread crumbs
- Absorb liquid and help thicken the mixture so it holds together.
- Sweet milk
- Adds moisture and softness, keeping the set eggs tender rather than dry.
The step that matters
Baking until brown. Eggs set as they heat, and over-baking makes them dry and rubbery while under-baking leaves the middle wet. Watch for a set centre and light browning rather than relying on time alone.
Swap the tomato
How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (bread, egg, milk, pepper, butter):
- Capsicumfits better
- Potatofits better
- Asparagusfits about as well
- Tomatothe original
Fit is the average pairing score against bread, egg, milk, pepper, 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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