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Potato Omelet

A baked potato and egg mixture seasoned with parsley, salt, and pepper.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 6 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 ↓

Potato Omelet

Oven, in the book's wordsA moderate oven

Ingredients

Directions

The book says “a moderate oven”. The 350°F (175°C) in the steps is the modern equivalent, not the book's own figure.

Prepare the potatoes

  1. Peel and wash the potatoes, then bake them in their jackets.

  2. Scoop out the insides and pass them through a sieve.

Make the mixture

  1. Beat the egg whites and yolks separately.

  2. Mix the beaten eggs with the potatoes, adding salt and pepper to taste.

  3. Butter a pie dish and pour the mixture in.

Bake and serve

  1. Bake in a 350°F (175°C) oven for 15 to 20 minutes.

  2. Serve immediately, as it gets heavier when cold.

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. Potato + parsleytop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together2,855 recipes

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

  3. Potato + peppertop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together8,305 recipes

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

  4. Potato + milktop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together3,611 recipes

    Shared aroma: (e,z)-2,6-nonadienal (cucumber, melon).

  5. Egg + milktop 18% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together88,785 recipes

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

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

What each ingredient does

Potatoes
Provide the starchy bulk that gives the omelet its soft, light body.
Eggs
Set during baking to bind the potatoes and give structure and richness.

The step that matters

Beat the egg whites and yolks separately. Beaten whites trap air, which helps the omelet rise and stay light. Folding them into the potato mixture gently keeps that air from being lost.

Swap the potato

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

  1. Capsicumfits about as well
  2. Carrotfits about as well
  3. Potatothe original
  4. Spinachfits about as well

Fit is the average pairing score against parsley, egg, 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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