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Spanish Omelet

A Spanish omelet made with bacon, tomatoes, mushrooms, onion, eggs, milk, and butter.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 8 ingredients
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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 ↓

Spanish Omelet

Ingredients

Directions

Make the filling

  1. Fry the bacon until crisp, then chop it into bits.

  2. Mix the chopped bacon with the tomatoes and mushrooms.

  3. Return the mixture to the pan with the bacon fat and add the minced onion.

  4. Stir over medium heat for 10 minutes, ensuring it does not scorch.

Cook the omelette

  1. In a bowl, beat the eggs and add salt, pepper, and milk.

  2. Melt a bit of butter in a pan and pour in the egg mixture.

  3. Cook until the omelet is nearly set.

  4. Quickly pour the chopped mixture over the omelet, fold it, and transfer to a hot platter.

  5. Serve immediately.

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. Tomato + mushroomtop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together2,719 recipes

    Shared aroma: 1-octen-3-one (mushroom, metallic).

  3. Mushroom + buttertop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together12,525 recipes

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

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

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

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

Eggs
Set into the structure of the omelette as they cook, holding the filling together.
Bacon
Adds savoury fat and flavour, and its rendered fat is used to cook the filling.
Mushrooms
Release moisture as they cook, adding body and an earthy flavour to the filling.
Onion
Softens as it cooks, adding sweetness and aroma to the filling.
Tomatoes
Add moisture and acidity that brighten the filling as they cook down.

The step that matters

Stir the filling without scorching. Over medium heat the tomatoes, mushrooms and onion release water and sugars that can stick and burn on the pan. Frequent stirring keeps the mixture moist and evenly cooked, and the fat from the bacon helps prevent sticking.

Swap the onion

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

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

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