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Kidney Tortilla

A tortilla filled with stewed kidneys, parsley, onion, and butter, folded and cooked with eggs.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 8 ingredients
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Why it works: Parsley and pepper 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 ↓

Kidney Tortilla

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the filling

  1. Slice the kidneys thinly and stew them with parsley, onion, and 1 tablespoon of butter in the stock until tender.

  2. In a bowl, beat the eggs with the milk and a little salt and pepper.

Cook the tortilla

  1. Heat the remaining butter in a sauté pan and pour in the egg mixture, shaking the pan to prevent burning.

  2. Cook until browned on one side, then place the kidney mixture in the center of the tortilla.

  3. Fold the tortilla over the filling and serve.

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. Parsley + peppertop 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. Parsley + oniontop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together25,843 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2,4-decadienal (seaweed).

  4. Onion + peppertop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together68,474 recipes

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

  5. Onion + buttertop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together42,912 recipes

    Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).

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

What each ingredient does

Eggs
Set into the tender structure that holds the tortilla together and wraps the filling.
Kidneys
Provide the main meaty filling, becoming tender after slow stewing in stock.
Butter
Adds richness and fat for browning the tortilla in the pan.
Milk
Adds moisture and softness to the beaten egg mixture.
Stock
Moistens and flavors the kidneys as they stew until tender.

The step that matters

Cook the tortilla until browned on one side. Shaking the pan keeps the thin egg layer from burning, and the egg must set enough to fold without tearing. Cooking over moderate heat lets the underside brown evenly while the top stays set.

Swap the onion

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

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

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