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Savory Friar's Omelet

A baked potato and carrot omelet with butter and breadcrumbs.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 8 ingredients
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Why it works: Potato and carrot match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 4% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 3,107 recipes. Both carry 2-isobutyl-3-methoxypyrazine, which smells green bell pepper, earthy. The science ↓

Savory Friar's Omelet

Ingredients

Directions

The book gives no oven temperature. The 350°F (175°C) in the steps was added when the recipe was transcribed, as a starting point.

Prepare the purée

  1. Boil the potatoes and carrots until tender.

  2. Pass the cooked potatoes and carrots through a wire sieve using a wooden spoon.

  3. Mix in the egg yolk, salt, pepper, and butter until a thick paste forms.

Assemble and bake

  1. Butter a pudding dish and sprinkle with fine bread crumbs.

  2. Spread the mixture in the dish and top with more bread crumbs and small pieces of butter.

  3. Bake at 350°F (175°C) for about 30 minutes or until the crumbs are golden brown.

Serve

  1. Turn out onto a dish and 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. Potato + carrottop 4% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together3,107 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-isobutyl-3-methoxypyrazine (green bell pepper, earthy).

  2. Carrot + peppertop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together14,555 recipes

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

  3. Butter + breadtop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together27,232 recipes

    Shared aroma: delta-decalactone (sweet, creamy).

  4. Potato + peppertop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together8,305 recipes

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

  5. Potato + buttertop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together6,456 recipes

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

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

What each ingredient does

Potatoes
Form the bulk of the mixture, giving it body and a soft, sliceable structure when cooked.
Carrots
Add moisture and natural sweetness, and give the paste its colour and texture.
Egg yolk
Binds the purée together and helps it set firmly when baked.
Bread crumbs
Form a crisp, golden crust on the top and sides during baking.

The step that matters

Passing the vegetables through a sieve. Pushing the cooked potatoes and carrots through a fine sieve breaks down fibres and lumps, producing a smooth paste. Lumps left in the mixture will bake unevenly and hold together poorly.

Swap the carrot

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

  1. Asparagusfits better
  2. Capsicumfits better
  3. Chivefits better
  4. Carrotthe original

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