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Tomato Omelette

A tomato omelette made with flour batter, eggs, tomatoes, pepper, salt, and butter.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 7 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 ↓

Tomato Omelette

Ingredients

Directions

Make the batter

  1. In a bowl, mix flour with enough milk to create a smooth batter.

  2. Beat the eggs until light and fluffy, then stir in the flour mixture.

  3. Peel and chop the tomatoes, then add them to the batter along with pepper and salt.

Cook the omelette

  1. Heat butter in a pan over medium heat, then pour in the mixture.

  2. Cook until set, folding it over if desired, but do not turn it.

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

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

  3. Flour + buttertop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together124,287 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  4. Flour + milktop 14% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together78,219 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  5. Tomato + milktop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together2,226 recipes

    Shared aroma: 1-octen-3-one (mushroom, metallic).

Flour and butter barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 124,287 recipes: they work on texture and structure more than aroma.

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

What each ingredient does

Eggs
Set when heated, giving the omelette its structure and body.
Flour
Thickens the batter so it holds together and stays smooth when cooked.
Milk
Loosens the flour into a smooth batter and adds moisture to the eggs.
Tomatoes
Add moisture and a slight acidity that brightens the eggs.
Butter
Adds fat that keeps the omelette from sticking and gives flavour and light browning.

The step that matters

Cook until set without turning. Egg proteins set as they heat, so medium heat cooks the omelette gently and evenly. Too much heat toughens and over-browns the eggs, and turning can break the delicate set layer.

Swap the tomato

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

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

Fit is the average pairing score against flour, pepper, milk, butter, egg. 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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