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Spanish Omelette

A Spanish omelette with kidney, ham, mushrooms, chili, onion, parsley, bay leaf, tomatoes, stock, eggs, flour, milk, pepper, and salt.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 15 ingredients
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Why it works: Olive and tomato are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 15,539 recipes. Both carry 3-hexenal, which smells apple, fruity. The science ↓

Spanish Omelette

Ingredients

Directions

Make the filling

  1. Heat olive oil or butter in a pan over medium heat.

  2. Add sliced kidney, chopped ham, minced mushrooms, chopped chili, onion, parsley, and bay leaf.

  3. Cook until softened.

  4. Stir in sliced tomatoes and clear stock.

  5. Simmer gently for 30 minutes.

Make the omelette

  1. Whip egg whites.

  2. Whip egg yolks.

  3. Combine the whites and yolks.

  4. Mix in flour, milk, pepper, and salt into the eggs.

  5. Pour the egg mixture into a buttered pan.

  6. Cook lightly.

  7. Pour the sauce over the omelette before folding.

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. Olive + tomatotop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together15,539 recipes

    Shared aroma: 3-hexenal (apple, fruity).

  2. Olive + parsleytop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together9,649 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2,4-decadienal (seaweed).

  3. Olive + mushroomtop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together4,571 recipes

    Shared aroma: trans,trans-2,4-nonadienal (fatty, green).

  4. Mushroom + tomatotop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together2,719 recipes

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

  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
Whipped whites and yolks give the omelette its light, airy structure when cooked.
Tomatoes
Add acidity and moisture to the sauce, balancing the richness of the eggs and stock.
Clear stock
Provides liquid and savoury depth to the simmered sauce.
Flour
Helps thicken the egg mixture slightly so it holds together when folded.
Onion
Softens into the base of the sauce, adding sweetness and savoury aroma.

The step that matters

Whip the egg whites and yolks separately. Whites whipped to stiff foam trap air that makes the omelette rise and stay light; overmixing or deflating them loses that lift, leaving a dense result.

Swap the onion

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (olive, lamb, ham, mushroom, parsley, tomato, egg):

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

Fit is the average pairing score against olive, lamb, ham, mushroom, parsley, tomato, 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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