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Tomato Omelet

A tomato-based omelet cooked with onions, bread crumbs, and butter.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 8 ingredients
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Why it works: Bread and butter are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 7% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 27,232 recipes. Both carry delta-decalactone, which smells sweet, creamy. The science ↓

Tomato Omelet

Ingredients

Directions

Make the tomato base

  1. Simmer the tomatoes in enough water to cover them for 20 minutes.

  2. Add the finely chopped onion.

  3. Add the crumbled bread.

  4. Add the butter.

Finish the omelet

  1. Beat the eggs.

  2. Stir the beaten eggs into the mixture.

  3. Season with salt and pepper to taste.

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. Bread + buttertop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together27,232 recipes

    Shared aroma: delta-decalactone (sweet, creamy).

  2. Tomato + peppertop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together17,923 recipes

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

  3. Tomato + oniontop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together20,633 recipes

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

  4. Tomato + breadtop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,013 recipes

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

  5. Onion + peppertop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together68,474 recipes

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

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

What each ingredient does

Tomatoes
Provide the main body, moisture and sweet-tart flavor of the dish.
Eggs
Bind the mixture and set on heating, giving the dish its structure and body.
Bread
Absorbs liquid from the tomatoes, helping thicken the mixture and give it body.
Butter
Adds richness and fat, carrying flavor and a smooth texture.
Onion
Contributes savory aroma and depth as it softens in the tomato base.

The step that matters

Stir the beaten eggs into the mixture. Eggs set when heated, so adding them to a hot mixture and stirring gently keeps them evenly distributed and tender rather than scrambled in lumps or overcooked and rubbery.

Swap the onion

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

  1. Capsicumfits better
  2. Asparagusfits better
  3. Potatofits better
  4. Onionthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against tomato, bread, butter, egg, pepper. 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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