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Meat Omelet

A quick omelet made with chopped ham, eggs, pepper, and butter.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
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Why it works: Ham and butter are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 16% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 5,475 recipes. Both carry trans-2-decenal, which smells waxy, orange. The science ↓

Meat Omelet

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. In a bowl, combine the chopped ham and eggs.

  2. Add pepper and beat the mixture until well combined.

Cook

  1. Heat a frying pan and add a good amount of butter.

  2. Pour the mixture into the hot pan.

  3. When the omelet is set, fold one half over the other and let it cook for a few minutes before serving.

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

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

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

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

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

    Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).

  4. Pepper + buttertop 21% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together85,593 recipes

    Shared aroma: trans-2-nonenal (cardboard, fatty).

  5. Ham + peppertop 23% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together6,058 recipes

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

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

What each ingredient does

Eggs
Set when heated, forming the omelet's structure and body.
Cooked ham
Adds savory flavor and chewy texture throughout the omelet.
Butter
Coats the pan and adds richness and light browning to the surface.

The step that matters

Waiting for the omelet to set before folding. Eggs need to firm up enough to hold their shape. Folding too early, while the centre is still liquid, tears the omelet and lets uncooked egg spill out.

“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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