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Ham Omelette

A fried egg dish with chopped boiled ham, butter, and black pepper.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 4 ingredients
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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 Omelette

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the filling

  1. Chop the cold boiled ham finely.

  2. In a bowl, mix the chopped ham with black pepper and the well-beaten egg yolks.

  3. Melt 2 teaspoons of butter and add it to the mixture.

Cook and serve

  1. Beat the egg whites until very light and gently fold them into the mixture.

  2. Heat a pan with some butter, pour in the mixture, and cook until set.

  3. Fold the omelette over and serve in a warm dish.

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

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

  2. Ham + eggtop 17% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together4,526 recipes

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

  3. Butter + eggtop 17% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together118,967 recipes

    Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).

  4. Butter + peppertop 21% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together85,593 recipes

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

  5. Ham + peppertop 23% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together6,058 recipes

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

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

What each ingredient does

Eggs
Egg yolks bind the ham and seasoning, while whipped whites give the omelette its light, airy structure.
Butter
Adds richness and flavour, and helps keep the omelette from sticking to the pan.
Cold boiled ham
Provides savoury flavour and substance as the filling.

The step that matters

Folding in the beaten egg whites. Whites hold air only when beaten to a light foam, and folding gently preserves that air; overmixing deflates them, leaving a dense omelette.

“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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