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Ham and Omelette

A ham omelette made by boiling ham, broiling slices, whisking eggs with milk, cooking in butter, and folding over the ham.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 6 ingredients
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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 ↓

Ham and Omelette

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the ham

  1. Boil the ham in water for 15 minutes.

  2. Let the boiled ham cool.

  3. Remove the rind from the ham and trim each slice neatly.

  4. Broil the trimmed slices on a greased grill.

  5. Season the broiled ham with pepper and keep it warm.

Make the omelette

  1. In a bowl, beat the egg whites and yolks together.

  2. Add the milk to the beaten eggs and beat for 1 minute.

  3. Season the egg mixture.

  4. Pour the seasoned egg mixture into a frying pan with heated butter (not hissing).

  5. Shake the pan over the heat, using a spatula to prevent sticking.

  6. After 4 minutes, fold the omelette in half.

  7. Invert the folded omelette onto a hot dish.

  8. Arrange the ham around the omelette on the dish.

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. Milk + buttertop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together81,283 recipes

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

  2. Ham + buttertop 16% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together5,475 recipes

    Shared aroma: trans-2-decenal (waxy, orange).

  3. Ham + eggtop 17% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together4,526 recipes

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

  4. Egg + buttertop 17% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together118,967 recipes

    Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).

  5. Egg + milktop 18% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together88,785 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, 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 omelette as they cook, holding it together.
Milk
Adds moisture to the beaten eggs, keeping the omelette tender.
Ham
Provides savoury flavour and substance as the main filling and garnish.
Butter
Fats the pan and adds richness while helping the omelette release.

The step that matters

Pour into butter that is hot but not hissing. If the butter is too hot and sizzles, the egg proteins set too fast and toughen or brown before the omelette is evenly cooked. Gentle heat keeps it tender.

“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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