Name: Scrambled Eggs with Potatoes
Ingredients: left-over potatoes; butter; oil; eggs; onion (optional); pepper (to taste); string beans (optional); black toast (optional)

Why it works: Potato and onion are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 3% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 9,023 recipes. Both carry 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine, which smells earthy, pea. The science ↓

Scrambled Eggs with Potatoes

Ingredients

Directions

Cut left-over potatoes into small pieces or slices.
Fry the potatoes in equal parts butter and oil until brown.
Prepare a batter for scrambled eggs and pour it over the potatoes.
Stir until the eggs are firm.
If desired, add finely chopped onions browned in butter, mix with the eggs and potatoes, and serve.
Season with pepper to taste.

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.

Potato + oniontop 3% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together9,023 recipes

Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).
Potato + beanstop 5% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together655 recipes

Shared aroma: 2-isobutyl-3-methoxypyrazine (green bell pepper, earthy).
Onion + beanstop 7% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together5,242 recipes

Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).
Potato + peppertop 9% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together8,305 recipes

Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).
Pepper + beanstop 11% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together4,733 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

Swap the onion

The recipe marks onion as optional. How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (potato, butter, egg, pepper, beans):

Asparagusfits better
Chivefits better
Capsicumfits better
Onionthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against potato, butter, egg, pepper, beans. Candidates are from the same food group and used in at least 100 recipes.