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Tomato Omelet

A tomato-based omelet cooked with onions, bread, butter, eggs, salt, and pepper.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 8 ingredients
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Why it works: Bread and butter are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 7% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 27,232 recipes. Both carry delta-decalactone, which smells sweet, creamy. The science ↓

Tomato Omelet

Ingredients

Directions

Make the tomato base

  1. Simmer the chopped tomatoes in enough water to cover them for 20 minutes.

  2. Add finely chopped onions, crumbled bread, and butter to the tomatoes.

Finish the omelet

  1. Beat the eggs.

  2. Stir the beaten eggs into the mixture and cook for a few minutes.

  3. Season with salt and pepper to taste.

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. Bread + buttertop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together27,232 recipes

    Shared aroma: delta-decalactone (sweet, creamy).

  2. Tomato + peppertop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together17,923 recipes

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

  3. Tomato + oniontop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together20,633 recipes

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

  4. Tomato + breadtop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,013 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).

  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

Tomatoes
Provide the main body, moisture and acidity of the dish.
Eggs
Set when cooked, binding the mixture into a soft, tender body.
Crumbled bread
Absorbs liquid and thickens the tomato mixture as it cooks.
Butter
Adds richness and fat for a smoother, more rounded flavor.
Onions
Add savory aroma and sweetness as they soften in the mixture.

The step that matters

Stir the beaten eggs into the mixture and cook for a few minutes. Eggs set quickly under heat and can turn rubbery or curdle if overcooked. Stirring them in gently over moderate heat keeps them tender and evenly distributed through the tomato base.

Swap the onion

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (tomato, bread, butter, egg, pepper):

  1. Capsicumfits better
  2. Asparagusfits better
  3. Potatofits better
  4. Onionthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against tomato, bread, butter, egg, pepper. 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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