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Baskets of Olives

A savory omelet made with olives, ham, chicken, and eggs.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 8 ingredients
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Why it works: Olive and chicken are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 9% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 11,888 recipes. Both carry acetic acid hexyl ester, which smells sweet, green. The science ↓

Baskets of Olives

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. Chip a piece from the end of each hard-boiled egg so they can stand upright.

  2. Halve the eggs.

  3. In a mortar, pound the olives, ham, chicken, and batter into a paste.

  4. Add the yolks of the eggs to the mixture.

Cook and serve

  1. Cook the mixture in a pan, lifting the bottom layer to allow the liquid egg to flow underneath.

  2. Sprinkle with salt and pepper.

  3. Use a spatula to roll or fold the omelet, then turn it out onto a heated 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. Olive + chickentop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together11,888 recipes

    Shared aroma: acetic acid hexyl ester (sweet, green).

  2. Olive + peppertop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together30,263 recipes

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

  3. Ham + chickentop 14% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,497 recipes

    Shared aroma: 1-octen-3-ol (mushroom, earthy).

  4. Chicken + peppertop 16% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together19,958 recipes

    Shared aroma: piperonal (bitter, coconut).

  5. Egg + hamtop 17% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together4,526 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

Hard-boiled eggs
Provide the bulk and structure of the dish, with their halves set upright for presentation.
Olives
Add a briny, savory flavor and a firm texture once pounded into the paste.
Ham
Adds savory, salty flavor and meaty richness to the filling.
Chicken
Adds savory, meaty body and substance to the filling.
Batter
Binds the pounded filling together and adds moisture to the mixture.
Egg yolks
Add richness, fat and binding to the mixture, helping it hold together while cooking.

The step that matters

Cook the mixture in a pan, lifting the bottom layer. Lifting the set bottom layer lets the still-liquid egg run underneath, so the omelet cooks evenly instead of scorching on the base while the top stays raw.

“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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