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 ↓
Fricasseed Eggs
Ingredients
Directions
Prepare the eggs
Boil the 12 eggs for 6 to 7 minutes until hard enough to peel and slice.
Place the boiled eggs in cold water to cool.
Peel the boiled eggs.
Slice the boiled eggs.
Dust the sliced eggs with flour.
Bread and fry
Prepare seasoned bread crumbs with pepper, salt, and nutmeg.
Beat the yolks of 2 or 3 raw eggs until light.
Dip the sliced eggs in the beaten egg.
Coat the sliced eggs with bread crumbs.
Heat boiling lard in a frying pan.
Fry the coated eggs on both sides until golden.
Serve garnished with fried parsley.
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.
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Pepper + parsleytop 2% of all pairsSmell alikestrongCooked together34,122 recipes
Shared aroma: 4'-methylacetophenone (bitter almond).
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Nutmeg + parsleytop 3% of all pairsSmell alikestrongCooked together5,062 recipes
Shared aroma: 4'-methylacetophenone (bitter almond).
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Pepper + nutmegtop 7% of all pairsSmell alikestrongCooked together13,015 recipes
Shared aroma: 4'-methylacetophenone (bitter almond).
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Nutmeg + flourtop 8% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together18,623 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
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Flour + parsleytop 12% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together16,675 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs
What each ingredient does
- Eggs
- Boiled and sliced eggs form the body of the dish, set firm for slicing.
- Bread crumbs
- Form a crisp, golden coating that browns when fried.
- Raw eggs
- Beaten egg acts as a binder so the crumbs stick to the slices.
- Flour
- A light dusting gives the beaten egg a dry surface to grip.
The step that matters
Coating the sliced eggs. The flour, beaten egg and crumbs must each cover the slices fully and evenly. Gaps let hot lard reach the egg white and the coating can break or fall off during frying.
Swap the parsley
How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (egg, bread, pepper, nutmeg, flour):
- Cinnamonfits about as well
- Parsleythe original
- Marjoramfits about as well
- Allspicefits about as well
Fit is the average pairing score against egg, bread, pepper, nutmeg, flour. 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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