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Ham Omelette

A quick omelette made with eggs, milk, butter, and chopped cooked ham.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
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Why it works: Milk and butter are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 7% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 81,283 recipes. Both carry (z)-4-heptenal, which smells biscuit, cream. The science ↓

Ham Omelette

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. In a bowl, beat the eggs and mix in the milk.

  2. Melt the butter in a skillet over medium heat.

Cook

  1. Pour the egg mixture into the skillet and cook until it begins to thicken.

  2. Add the chopped ham and continue cooking until the omelette is set.

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. Milk + buttertop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together81,283 recipes

    Shared aroma: (z)-4-heptenal (biscuit, cream).

  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. Egg + milktop 18% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together88,785 recipes

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

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

What each ingredient does

Eggs
Set into the structure of the omelette as they cook and thicken.
Milk
Adds moisture, keeping the eggs tender rather than dry.
Cooked ham
Adds savory flavor and substance to the omelette.
Butter
Adds richness and keeps the eggs from sticking to the skillet.

The step that matters

Cook the eggs over medium heat until they begin to thicken. Eggs turn firm quickly when proteins coagulate, so high heat can make them tough, dry, or browned. Medium heat lets them set gently and stay tender, and the ham is added only once the eggs are nearly set.

“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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