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Ham Omelette

A fried egg mixture with chopped ham, butter, pepper, and salt.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 5 ingredients
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Why it works: Butter and ham are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 16% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 5,475 recipes. Both carry trans-2-decenal, which smells waxy, orange. The science ↓

Ham Omelette

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. Break the eggs into a bowl and beat them until the yolks and whites blend.

  2. Melt 1 ounce of butter in an omelette pan.

  3. Stir the chopped ham, pepper, and salt into the beaten eggs.

Cook and serve

  1. Pour half of the egg mixture into the pan with the hot butter.

  2. Stir until the omelette begins to set at the edges.

  3. Fold the omelette in half and let it cook for another minute.

  4. Turn it out onto a hot platter 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. Butter + hamtop 16% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together5,475 recipes

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

  2. Egg + hamtop 17% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together4,526 recipes

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

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

    Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).

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

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

  5. Pepper + hamtop 23% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together6,058 recipes

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

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

What each ingredient does

Eggs
Set into a tender structure that forms the body of the omelette.
Butter
Adds richness and fat that keeps the eggs from sticking and gives flavour.
Boiled ham
Adds savoury flavour and chewy texture to the egg mixture.

The step that matters

Stirring until the edges begin to set. Stirring while the eggs cook creates small curds and even setting. If the heat is too high or you stop stirring too early, the eggs can brown, toughen, or cook unevenly.

“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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