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Vegetarian Omelet

A baked casserole of macaroni, onion, pepper, eggs, milk, and bread crumbs.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 8 ingredients
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Why it works: Bread and butter are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 7% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 27,232 recipes. Both carry delta-decalactone, which smells sweet, creamy. The science ↓

Vegetarian Omelet

Ingredients

Directions

The book gives no oven temperature. The 350°F (175°C) in the steps was added when the recipe was transcribed, as a starting point.

Prepare

  1. Preheat the oven to 350°F (175°C).

  2. Layer half of the bread crumbs in a greased pie dish.

Assemble

  1. Boil the macaroni until tender, then drain.

  2. Add the boiled macaroni and chopped onion on top of the crumbs.

  3. Beat the eggs with the sweet milk and pour over the ingredients.

  4. Top with the remaining bread crumbs and dot with butter.

Bake

  1. Bake until set and golden brown.

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. Bread + buttertop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together27,232 recipes

    Shared aroma: delta-decalactone (sweet, creamy).

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

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

  3. Bread + milktop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together11,466 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-undecenal (sweet).

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

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

  5. Bread + eggtop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together22,662 recipes

    Shared aroma: (e)-2-octenal (fatty, green).

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

What each ingredient does

Eggs
Bind the custard and help it set into a firm, sliceable casserole.
Macaroni
Forms the bulk and body of the casserole, absorbing the custard as it bakes.
Bread crumbs
Form a crisp, golden topping and a base layer that soaks up moisture.
Sweet milk
Loosens the beaten eggs into a custard that coats the pasta and sets when baked.
Butter
Adds richness and helps the top brown as it bakes.

The step that matters

Bake until set and golden brown. Eggs set as their proteins coagulate with heat. Underbaking leaves the custard runny, while overbaking makes it dry and rubbery, so watch for a firm center and an even golden top.

Swap the onion

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

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

Fit is the average pairing score against bread, pepper, egg, butter, milk. 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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