Name: Savory Omelet
Ingredients: 2 or 3 small ears of corn, tender; ½ green sweet pepper, seeds removed; ½ cup boiled ham or dried beef, fried to a crisp; a pinch of mixed herbs; salt to taste; 4 eggs; 1 pint sweet milk; 1 tablespoon corn starch; oil or butter for frying

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 ↓

Savory Omelet

Ingredients

Directions

The book gives no oven temperature. The 350°F (175°C) in the steps was added when the recipe was transcribed, as a starting point.

Prepare

Cut the tender corn from the ears.
Finely mince the green sweet pepper and the boiled ham or dried beef.

Make the batter

In a bowl, combine the corn, sweet pepper, minced meat, mixed herbs, and salt.
Beat the eggs, add the sweet milk, and mix the egg mixture with the other ingredients.
Dissolve the corn starch in a little milk and add it to the mixture.

Cook

Fry in oil or butter, or bake in a 350°F (175°C) oven for 10 minutes.

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.

Milk + buttertop 7% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together81,283 recipes

Shared aroma: (z)-4-heptenal (biscuit, cream).
Corn + milktop 10% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together6,955 recipes

Shared aroma: hexanal (green, grassy).
Corn + peppertop 11% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together5,324 recipes

Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).
Corn + buttertop 14% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together7,345 recipes

Shared aroma: 2,3-pentanedione (butter, sweet).
Ham + buttertop 16% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together5,475 recipes

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

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

What each ingredient does

Eggs: Set when cooked, binding the filling together into a sliced omelet.
Sweet milk: Adds moisture, keeping the omelet tender rather than dry.
Corn starch: Thickens the milk and egg mixture, helping it hold together and stay soft.
Tender corn: Adds sweetness and juicy texture to the filling.
Boiled ham or dried beef: Adds savory, salty flavor and chewy texture; crisping it adds depth.

“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.