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Tomato Omelet

A tomato and shallot omelet with butter, pepper, salt, and castor sugar.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 7 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 ↓

Tomato Omelet

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. Skin the tomato and cut it into small pieces.

  2. Finely chop the shallot.

Make the omelet

  1. Heat the yolks and whites of the eggs separately.

  2. Mix the tomato, shallot, pepper, and salt with the yolks.

  3. Heat the butter in an omelet pan until hot.

  4. Gently fold the whipped egg whites into the yolk mixture.

  5. Pour the mixture into the hot omelet pan and cook for 2–3 minutes, stirring constantly.

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. Shallot + peppertop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together5,898 recipes

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

  3. Tomato + shallottop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together583 recipes

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

  4. Shallot + buttertop 17% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together4,426 recipes

    Shared aroma: eucalyptol (eucalyptus, herbal).

  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
Whipped whites trap air for a light, lofty texture, while yolks add richness and set the body.
Butter
Adds fat for flavor and helps the omelet brown and release from the hot pan.
Tomato
Adds moisture and gentle acidity that brightens the eggs.
Shallot
Adds a mild, sweet onion aroma that cooks down into the eggs.

The step that matters

Folding the whipped egg whites into the yolk mixture. Whites are full of trapped air that gives the omelet its lift. Folding gently keeps that air in; stirring or beating deflates it and leaves a dense, flat omelet.

Swap the tomato

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

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

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