Skip to main content
Main

Spanish Omelet

A fried egg and vegetable mixture cooked in butter, served hot.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 9 ingredients
Jump to recipe ↓

Why it works: Onion and garlic match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 29,058 recipes. Both carry furaneol, which smells caramel, strawberry. The science ↓

Spanish Omelet

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. Beat the egg whites separately.

  2. Beat the yolks separately.

  3. Mix the whites and yolks together in a bowl.

  4. Add warm water to the mixture.

  5. Sprinkle coarse sea salt into the mixture.

  6. Chop the onion, green pepper, potatoes, and parsley finely.

  7. Rub the omelet pan with the garlic, if using.

Cook

  1. Add the butter to the pan.

  2. Heat the pan until the butter is boiling hot.

  3. Pour the egg mixture into the pan.

  4. When the eggs begin to thicken, add the chopped vegetables.

  5. Carefully turn the omelet.

  6. When the omelet is done, flip it onto a hot platter.

  7. 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. Onion + garlictop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together29,058 recipes

    Shared aroma: furaneol (caramel, strawberry).

  2. Pepper + parsleytop 2% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together34,122 recipes

    Shared aroma: 4'-methylacetophenone (bitter almond).

  3. Onion + potatotop 3% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together9,023 recipes

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

  4. Potato + garlictop 4% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together4,517 recipes

    Shared aroma: furaneol (caramel, strawberry).

  5. Parsley + garlictop 4% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together9,308 recipes

    Shared aroma: beta-phellandrene (minty, terpene).

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

What each ingredient does

Eggs
Whipped separately and combined, they set into the body of the omelet.
Potatoes
Provide starch and bulk, giving the tortilla its substantial, filling texture.
Onion
Adds sweetness and aroma as it softens in the eggs.
Butter
Fats the pan and adds richness and browning to the outside of the omelet.

The step that matters

Turning the omelet. Once the eggs begin to thicken, the underside sets while the top is still liquid. Turn carefully so the omelet keeps its shape and does not tear or break apart.

Swap the clove

The recipe marks clove as optional. How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (egg, onion, pepper, potato, parsley, garlic, butter):

  1. Thymefits better
  2. Dillfits better
  3. Marjoramfits better
  4. Clovethe original

Fit is the average pairing score against egg, onion, pepper, potato, parsley, garlic, butter. 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

Potato CroquettesPotato Croquettes255 recipesPotato RollsPotato Rolls78 recipesPotato ChipsPotato Chips53 recipesSweet Potato CroquettesSweet Potato Croquettes53 recipes