Skip to main content
Breakfast

Omelet and Tomato

A simple omelet folded with thick tomato sauce, seasoned with salt and pepper.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 4 ingredients
Jump to recipe ↓

Why it works: Pepper and tomato 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 ↓

Omelet and Tomato

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. Beat the eggs well.

  2. Season the eggs with salt and pepper.

Cook and serve

  1. Prepare a plain savory omelet in a pan.

  2. Just before folding the omelet, add a few tablespoons of thick tomato sauce.

  3. Serve the omelet with additional tomato sauce around it.

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. Pepper + tomatotop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together17,923 recipes

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

  2. Tomato + saucetop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together5,469 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).

  3. Pepper + saucetop 27% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together15,303 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).

  4. Egg + peppertop 33% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together50,580 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).

  5. Egg + tomatotop 34% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together5,890 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).

Pepper and sauce barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 15,303 recipes: they work on texture and structure more than aroma.

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

What each ingredient does

Eggs
Beaten eggs form the structure of the omelet as they set when heated.
Thick tomato sauce
Adds moisture, acidity and savory flavor to the omelet's filling.

The step that matters

Adding the tomato sauce just before folding. Adding the sauce late keeps the eggs from becoming watery or overcooked, and preserves the sauce's texture and flavor. Eggs that are already set will not fold cleanly if the filling is too wet.

Swap the tomato

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

  1. Capsicumfits better
  2. Spinachfits better
  3. Asparagusfits about as well
  4. Tomatothe original

Fit is the average pairing score against egg, pepper, sauce. 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.

You might also like

Rice GruelRice Gruel28 recipesPeptoned Milk GruelPeptoned Milk Gruel9 recipes