Name: Crab or Oyster Omelet
Ingredients: 2 tablespoons crab meat; 6 oysters, blanched, gills removed, and cut into quarters; eggs (as needed for omelet); salt and pepper to taste

Why it works: Crab and meat work together. They rank in the top 8% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 448 recipes. Both carry 2,3,5-trimethylpyrazine, which smells cocoa, roasted. The science ↓

Crab or Oyster Omelet

Ingredients

2 tablespoons crab meat
6 oysters, blanched, gills removed, and cut into quarters
eggs (as needed for omelet)
salt and pepper to taste

Directions

Prepare the omelet mixture as you would for a savory omelet.
Add 2 tablespoons of crab meat to the mixture for the crab omelet.
Add the quartered oysters to the mixture for the oyster omelet.
Cook the omelet in a hot skillet until set and golden.

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.

Crab + meattop 8% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together448 recipes

Shared aroma: 2,3,5-trimethylpyrazine (cocoa, roasted).
Crab + oystertop 11% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together95 recipes

Shared aroma: 1-octen-3-ol (mushroom, earthy).
Oyster + eggtop 14% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together4,103 recipes

Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).
Crab + peppertop 15% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked together922 recipes

Shared aroma: nonanal (fat, citrus).
Meat + oystertop 17% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together536 recipes

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

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 omelet's structure and hold the filling together.
Crab meat: Adds delicate sweet seafood flavor and tender flakes to the filling.
Oysters: Add briny, savory seafood flavor and a tender texture when cooked briefly.

The step that matters

Cook the omelet in a hot skillet until set and golden.. Egg proteins tighten and toughen when overheated, so the omelet turns rubbery and dry if cooked too long. Cook until just set with light browning, and keep the heat controlled.

“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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Crab or Oyster Omelet