Name: Spanish Omelet
Ingredients: 3 seeded olives, sliced; a little cold ham, finely chopped; green peppers, chopped; tomatoes, chopped; mushrooms, chopped; a little mushroom sauce

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 Omelet

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare a plain omelet.
In a saucepan, combine olives, ham, green peppers, tomatoes, mushrooms, and mushroom sauce.
Mix thoroughly and bring to a boil.
Before folding the omelet, add the mixture to 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.

Olive + tomatotop 1% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together15,539 recipes

Shared aroma: 3-hexenal (apple, fruity).
Olive + mushroomtop 7% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together4,571 recipes

Shared aroma: trans,trans-2,4-nonadienal (fatty, green).
Tomato + mushroomtop 7% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together2,719 recipes

Shared aroma: 1-octen-3-one (mushroom, metallic).
Pepper + tomatotop 7% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together17,923 recipes

Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).
Olive + peppertop 11% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together30,263 recipes

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

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

Swap the tomato

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

Capsicumfits about as well
Tomatothe original
Spinachfits less well
Shallotfits less well

Fit is the average pairing score against olive, ham, pepper, mushroom, sauce. Candidates are from the same food group and used in at least 100 recipes.