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Spanish Eggs No. 2

A fried egg dish with tomato, onion, butter, salt, and pepper.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 6 ingredients
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Why it works: Tomato and pepper are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 7% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 17,923 recipes. Both carry 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine, which smells earthy, pea. The science ↓

Spanish Eggs No. 2

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the pan

  1. Rub the slice of onion over the inside of a frying pan.

Cook the tomato

  1. Peel and chop the tomato into bits, then add it to the frying pan with the butter.

  2. Cook for 5 minutes, stirring occasionally.

Cook the eggs and serve

  1. Beat the eggs well, then add them to the pan with the salt and pepper after 5 minutes.

  2. Stir constantly until the eggs thicken like scrambled eggs, then pour into a warm dish and serve immediately.

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

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

  2. Tomato + oniontop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together20,633 recipes

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

  3. Pepper + oniontop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together68,474 recipes

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

  4. Butter + oniontop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together42,912 recipes

    Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).

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

    Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).

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

What each ingredient does

Eggs
Set and thicken as they cook, forming a soft, scrambled-style texture.
Tomato
Adds moisture and acidity, softening into a sauce as it cooks with the butter.
Butter
Adds fat and richness, helping the tomato cook down and keeping the eggs from sticking.

The step that matters

Stir constantly while the eggs thicken. Egg proteins set quickly when heated. Constant stirring keeps the curds small and tender, while leaving the eggs still makes them overcook and turn rubbery in patches.

Swap the tomato

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

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

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