Name: Ham or Bacon Omelette
Ingredients: raw or boiled ham, cut into small pieces; butter; eggs, beaten; bacon, cut into small pieces (optional)

Why it works: Ham and butter are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 16% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 5,475 recipes. Both carry trans-2-decenal, which smells waxy, orange. The science ↓

Ham or Bacon Omelette

Ingredients

raw or boiled ham, cut into small pieces
butter
eggs, beaten
bacon, cut into small pieces (optional)

Directions

If using raw ham, cook it in butter until done.
Pour the beaten eggs over the cooked ham and finish cooking.
If using boiled ham, mix it with the beaten eggs and cook.
For bacon, follow the same method as with ham.

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.

Ham + buttertop 16% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together5,475 recipes

Shared aroma: trans-2-decenal (waxy, orange).
Ham + eggtop 17% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together4,526 recipes

Shared aroma: 2,4-decadienal (seaweed).
Butter + eggtop 17% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together118,967 recipes

Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).

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 as they cook, forming the body of the omelette.
Ham: Adds savory flavor and salty richness to the eggs.
Butter: Adds richness and helps cook the ham without sticking.

“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.