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Omelet with Tomato Sauce

A fluffy omelet folded with tomato or cream sauce.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 5 ingredients
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Why it works: Egg and butter are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 17% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 118,967 recipes. Both carry decanal, which smells soap, orange peel. The science ↓

Omelet with Tomato Sauce

Ingredients

Directions

The book gives no oven temperature. The 350°F (175°C) in the steps was added when the recipe was transcribed, as a starting point.

Prepare the eggs

  1. Separate the eggs.

  2. Beat the yolks with salt, pepper, and water until well combined.

  3. Beat the egg whites until stiff peaks form.

  4. Gently cut and fold the egg whites into the yolk mixture until fully incorporated.

Cook the omelet

  1. Heat an omelet pan and butter the bottom and sides generously.

  2. Pour the egg mixture into the pan and cook slowly over low heat.

  3. When the omelet is puffed and lightly browned underneath, place the pan in a 350°F (175°C) oven to finish cooking the top.

  4. The omelet is ready when it does not cling to your finger when touched.

  5. Fold the omelet.

  6. Transfer it to a heated platter.

Serve

  1. Serve immediately with tomato or cream sauce.

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

    Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).

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

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

  3. Egg + peppertop 33% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together50,580 recipes

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

Egg and pepper barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 50,580 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
Whites trapped by whipping give the omelet its light, puffed structure, while yolks add richness.
Butter
Greasing the pan generously keeps the omelet from sticking and adds a little browning and flavor.
Water
Adds moisture to the yolk mixture, producing a softer, more tender omelet.

The step that matters

Folding the whites into the yolks. Whites hold air only when whipped to stiff peaks. Folding gently, rather than stirring, keeps that air from deflating, so the omelet stays puffed.

“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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