Name: Vegetable Omelet
Ingredients: ready-dressed vegetables (cucumbers, artichokes, onions, sorrel, green peas, tomatoes, lentils, mushrooms, asparagus tops, potatoes, truffles, or turnips); milk, cream, or gravy (to taste); seasoning (to taste); eggs; 1 tablespoon butter

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 ↓

Vegetable Omelet

Ingredients

ready-dressed vegetables (cucumbers, artichokes, onions, sorrel, green peas, tomatoes, lentils, mushrooms, asparagus tops, potatoes, truffles, or turnips)
milk, cream, or gravy (to taste)
seasoning (to taste)
eggs
1 tablespoon butter

Directions

Prepare

Mash the ready-dressed vegetables with a little milk, cream, or gravy, and season to taste.
Beat the eggs lightly in a bowl.

Cook and serve

Heat a frying pan and add the butter.
Pour the beaten eggs into the hot pan.
Spread the vegetable puree over the top of the eggs.
When the omelet is hot, fold it 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.

Milk + buttertop 7% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together81,283 recipes

Shared aroma: (z)-4-heptenal (biscuit, cream).
Egg + buttertop 17% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together118,967 recipes

Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).
Milk + eggtop 18% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together88,785 recipes

Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).
Cucumber + eggtop 23% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together2,346 recipes

Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).
Cucumber + buttertop 24% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together2,185 recipes

Shared aroma: 2,6-nonadienal (cucumber, green).

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 as they cook.
Butter: Adds richness and keeps the eggs from sticking to the pan.
Ready-dressed vegetables: Provide the moist, flavourful puree that fills the omelet.