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Maccaronied Eggs

A baked dish of eggs, butter, milk, macaroni, mushrooms, and parsley served on toast.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 9 ingredients
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Why it works: Pepper and parsley match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 2% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 34,122 recipes. Both carry 4'-methylacetophenone, which smells bitter almond. The science ↓

Maccaronied Eggs

Ingredients

Directions

Make the eggs

  1. Melt the butter over hot water.

  2. Stir in the milk and then add the beaten eggs.

  3. Cook until the mixture thickens.

Add the macaroni and serve

  1. Add the chopped spaghetti, mushrooms, salt, pepper, and parsley.

  2. Cook for 3 minutes.

  3. Serve on rounds of toast garnished with parsley.

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. Pepper + parsleytop 2% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together34,122 recipes

    Shared aroma: 4'-methylacetophenone (bitter almond).

  2. Butter + milktop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together81,283 recipes

    Shared aroma: (z)-4-heptenal (biscuit, cream).

  3. Butter + mushroomtop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together12,525 recipes

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

  4. Mushroom + peppertop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together13,580 recipes

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

  5. Mushroom + parsleytop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together6,132 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
Set into a soft, creamy custard as they cook and thicken.
Milk
Dilutes the eggs so they set gently and stay moist and tender.
Butter
Adds richness and a smooth, silky mouthfeel to the eggs.
Spaghetti
Adds bulk and chewy texture to the soft eggs.
Button mushrooms
Add earthy flavour and a moist, meaty bite.

The step that matters

Cook until the mixture thickens. Eggs set from heat and can turn grainy or curdle if overcooked. Cooking gently over hot water and stopping once thickened keeps the texture soft and creamy.

Swap the parsley

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

  1. Parsleythe original
  2. Nutmegfits about as well
  3. Thymefits about as well
  4. Cinnamonfits less well

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