Name: Vegetable Omelet
Ingredients: 2 cups mixed cooked vegetables (cucumbers, artichokes, onions, sorrel, green peas, tomatoes, lentils, mushrooms, asparagus tops, potatoes, truffles, or turnips); ¼ cup milk, cream, or gravy; Salt and pepper to taste; 4 large eggs; 1 tablespoon butter

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 ↓

Vegetable Omelet

Ingredients

2 cups mixed cooked vegetables (cucumbers, artichokes, onions, sorrel, green peas, tomatoes, lentils, mushrooms, asparagus tops, potatoes, truffles, or turnips)
¼ cup milk, cream, or gravy
Salt and pepper to taste
4 large eggs
1 tablespoon butter

Directions

Prepare the filling

Mash the cooked vegetables with milk, cream, or gravy, and season with salt and pepper.

Cook the omelet

Beat the eggs until light and fluffy.
Heat a frying pan and add the butter.
Pour the beaten eggs into the pan and cook until set.
Spread the vegetable puree over one side of the omelet.
Fold the omelet in half and serve hot.

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.

Milk + buttertop 7% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together81,283 recipes

Shared aroma: (z)-4-heptenal (biscuit, cream).
Cucumber + peppertop 12% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together5,991 recipes

Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).
Egg + buttertop 17% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together118,967 recipes

Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).
Milk + eggtop 18% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together88,785 recipes

Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).
Pepper + buttertop 21% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together85,593 recipes

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

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

What each ingredient does

Eggs: Set when cooked, forming the structure and body of the omelet.
Cooked vegetables: Provide the bulk of the filling and add flavor and moisture to the omelet.
Milk, cream, or gravy: Adds moisture and softens the vegetable purée so it spreads easily.
Butter: Adds richness and helps keep the eggs from sticking to the pan.