Name: Olive Omelet
Ingredients: 4 large eggs; 10 French olives, pitted; ¼ cup demi-glace sauce; ¼ teaspoon cayenne pepper; ¼ teaspoon coarse sea salt; a pinch of sugar

Why it works: Olive and pepper are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 11% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 30,263 recipes. Both carry 2,4-decadienal, which smells seaweed. The science ↓

Olive Omelet

Ingredients

Directions

Make the olive sauce

In a saucepan, boil the pitted olives in the demi-glace sauce until heated through.
Season the mixture with cayenne, salt, and sugar.

Assemble and serve

In a separate bowl, prepare a savory omelet using the eggs.
Place the olive mixture in the center of the omelet.
Pour the remaining sauce around the omelet and serve.

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.

Olive + peppertop 11% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together30,263 recipes

Shared aroma: 2,4-decadienal (seaweed).
Sauce + sugartop 13% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together5,147 recipes

Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).
Olive + saucetop 20% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked together5,568 recipes

Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).
Egg + sugartop 21% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together122,807 recipes

Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).
Sauce + peppertop 27% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked together15,303 recipes

Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).

Sauce and pepper barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 15,303 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 the structure of the omelet, holding it together as it cooks.
Pitted olives: Add briny, savory flavor and a firm bite to the filling.
Demi-glace sauce: Adds rich, savory depth and moisture to both the olives and the sauce.

“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.