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Tomato Omelet

A savory omelet topped with sautéed tomatoes, onions, peppers, mushrooms, and seasonings.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 9 ingredients
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Why it works: Butter and milk 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 Omelet

Ingredients

Directions

Make the filling

  1. Melt 2 tablespoons of butter in a pan.

  2. Cook 1 tablespoon of finely chopped onion and 1 slice of chopped red or green pepper in the butter until softened.

  3. Add 1 cup of tomatoes and cook until the mixture has evaporated.

  4. Stir in 1 tablespoon of sliced cooked mushrooms, ¼ teaspoon of coarse sea salt, and pepper to taste.

Cook the omelet

  1. In a bowl, beat 4 eggs and mix in 4 tablespoons of milk, along with a little salt and pepper.

  2. Melt 1 tablespoon of butter in an omelet pan and pour in the egg mixture.

  3. Cook until set, then surround the omelet with the tomato mixture.

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. Butter + milktop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together81,283 recipes

    Shared aroma: (z)-4-heptenal (biscuit, cream).

  2. Tomato + mushroomtop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together2,719 recipes

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

  3. Butter + mushroomtop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together12,525 recipes

    Shared aroma: trans-2-decenal (waxy, orange).

  4. Pepper + tomatotop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together17,923 recipes

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

  5. Onion + tomatotop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together20,633 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

Eggs
Set when heated to form the structure of the omelet.
Butter
Adds richness and flavor and helps prevent the eggs from sticking.
Tomatoes
Provide moisture and acidity, and their juice must evaporate to avoid a watery filling.
Milk
Dilutes the eggs slightly, producing a softer, more tender texture.
Onion
Softens in butter to add savory sweetness and aroma to the filling.

The step that matters

Cook the tomatoes until the mixture has evaporated. Tomatoes release a lot of water when heated. If that liquid is not cooked off before filling is added, the omelet will be soggy and the filling will dilute the eggs.

Swap the onion

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

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

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