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Spanish Omelet

A skillet dish of eggs, onions, and potatoes seasoned with salt and pepper.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 6 ingredients
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Why it works: Onion and potato are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 3% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 9,023 recipes. Both carry 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine, which smells earthy, pea. The science ↓

Spanish Omelet

Ingredients

Directions

Cook the potatoes

  1. Heat the olive oil in a skillet over medium heat.

  2. Add the onions and potatoes to the skillet.

  3. Cook until the potatoes are tender.

Set the omelette

  1. Beat the eggs in a bowl and season with salt and pepper.

  2. Pour the eggs over the potato mixture in the skillet.

  3. Cook until the edges are set.

  4. Flip to cook the other side until golden brown.

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. Onion + potatotop 3% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together9,023 recipes

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

  2. Potato + olivetop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together6,458 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-undecenal (sweet).

  3. Onion + olivetop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together29,779 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2,4-decadienal (seaweed).

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

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

  5. Onion + peppertop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together68,474 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 when cooked, binding the potatoes and onions into a sliceable omelette.
Potatoes
Provide bulk and a soft, tender texture that absorbs the egg.
Olive oil
Cooks the potatoes and onions evenly and keeps them from sticking to the skillet.
Onion
Adds savory sweetness and aroma as it softens in the oil.

The step that matters

Cooking the potatoes until tender. Potato slices must be fully tender before the egg goes in, because raw or firm potato will not soften in the set eggs. Cooking them slowly in oil also softens them evenly without browning or breaking them.

Swap the onion

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

  1. Capsicumfits better
  2. Spinachfits better
  3. Tomatofits better
  4. Onionthe original

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