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Tomato Omelet

A tomato omelet cooked with butter, eggs, water, salt, sugar, and pepper.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 7 ingredients
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Why it works: Tomato and pepper are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 7% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 17,923 recipes. Both carry 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine, which smells earthy, pea. The science ↓

Tomato 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 the tomatoes

  1. Melt the butter in a large frying pan.

  2. Peel the tomatoes, cut each into three thick slices, then into quarters, and add to the hot butter.

  3. Sprinkle with salt, pepper, and sugar, and cook for 6 minutes, stirring gently to avoid breaking the pieces.

Make the egg mixture

  1. Separate the eggs. Beat the egg whites until stiff.

  2. In another bowl, beat the yolks with a little salt and pepper, then add the water and mix with the egg whites.

Cook and serve

  1. Pour the egg mixture over the tomatoes and cook on the stove for about 3 minutes until the bottom is browned.

  2. Transfer the pan to the oven at 350°F (175°C) until the omelet is set and firm to the touch.

  3. Slide the omelet onto a hot plate without folding it.

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

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

  2. Egg + buttertop 17% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together118,967 recipes

    Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).

  3. Butter + sugartop 17% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together98,233 recipes

    Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).

  4. Egg + sugartop 21% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together122,807 recipes

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

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

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

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

What each ingredient does

Eggs
Whites trap air for lift, and yolks set to give the omelet its structure.
Tomatoes
Add moisture and acidity, and soften as they cook into the omelet.
Butter
Adds fat and flavour and helps the base brown in the pan.
Water
Adds moisture to the egg mixture, keeping the omelet tender as it sets.
Sugar
Adds a little sweetness that balances the acidity of the tomatoes.

The step that matters

Beat the egg whites until stiff. Stiff whites hold air that gives the omelet its lift. Under-beaten whites collapse and make the omelet flat and dense, while over-beaten whites turn grainy and dry.

Swap the tomato

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

  1. Capsicumfits better
  2. Asparagusfits better
  3. Sweet potatofits better
  4. Tomatothe original

Fit is the average pairing score against egg, butter, sugar, 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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