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Ham Omelet

A quick omelet made with diced ham and baked tomatoes for garnish.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 6 ingredients
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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 ↓

Ham Omelet

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. In a bowl, beat the eggs with salt and pepper.

  2. Melt butter in a skillet over medium heat.

  3. Add the diced ham and cook until heated through.

Cook and serve

  1. Pour the beaten eggs over the ham and cook until set.

  2. Garnish with baked tomatoes 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. Pepper + tomatotop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together17,923 recipes

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

  2. Ham + buttertop 16% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together5,475 recipes

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

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

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

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

    Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).

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

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

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 omelet.
Butter
Adds richness and helps keep the eggs from sticking to the skillet.
Cooked ham
Supplies savory flavour and chew against the soft set eggs.

The step that matters

Pour the beaten eggs over the ham and cook until set. Egg proteins coagulate with heat; cooking over medium heat until just set keeps the omelet tender. Overcooking tightens the proteins, making it rubbery and dry.

Swap the tomato

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

  1. Capsicumfits better
  2. Asparagusfits better
  3. Mustardfits better
  4. Tomatothe original

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

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