Name: Fidelini a LA Royale
Ingredients: ½ lb fidelini; 5 quarts chicken broth; 6 egg yolks; 1 cup cream; salt; pepper; grated Parmesan cheese (for serving)

Why it works: Pepper and parmesan cheese are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 14% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 5,322 recipes. Both carry ethyl 2-methylbutyrate, which smells fruity, apple. The science ↓

Fidelini a LA Royale

Ingredients

Directions

Cook the pasta

Boil the fidelini in salted water until tender.
Drain the fidelini and add it to the chicken broth.

Make the custard and serve

In a bowl, whisk together the egg yolks and cream.
Stir the egg mixture into the broth and fidelini, cooking gently to thicken without boiling.
Serve with grated Parmesan cheese on the side.

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.

Pepper + parmesan cheesetop 14% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together5,322 recipes

Shared aroma: ethyl 2-methylbutyrate (fruity, apple).
Chicken + parmesan cheesetop 14% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together1,846 recipes

Shared aroma: ethyl isobutyrate (fruity, ethereal).
Chicken + peppertop 16% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together19,958 recipes

Shared aroma: piperonal (bitter, coconut).
Cream + parmesan cheesetop 17% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked together1,566 recipes

Shared aroma: gamma-decalactone (peach, creamy).
Egg + parmesan cheesetop 18% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together3,368 recipes

Shared aroma: 1-octen-3-ol (mushroom, earthy).

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

What each ingredient does

Fidelini: Provides the pasta body that the broth and egg mixture cling to.
Egg yolks: Thicken the broth as they set gently with heat, giving it a silky body.
Cream: Adds richness and smoothness, and helps the yolks blend into the broth.
Chicken broth: Forms the savoury liquid base that the pasta and custard are cooked in.

The step that matters

Stir the egg mixture into the broth and fidelini, cooking gently to thicken without boiling.. Egg yolks begin to scramble above roughly 160°F, so heat must stay gentle; boiling curdles the mixture into grainy bits instead of a smooth, thickened broth.

“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.