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Kidney Tortilla

A tortilla filled with stewed kidneys, parsley, onion, and seasoned egg mixture.

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 kidneys

  1. Slice the kidneys thinly.

  2. Stew the sliced kidneys with parsley, onion, and 1 tablespoon of butter in the stock until tender.

Make the tortilla

  1. Beat the eggs with the milk, salt, and pepper in a bowl.

  2. Heat the remaining butter in a sauté pan.

  3. Pour in the egg mixture, shaking the pan to prevent burning.

  4. When browned on one side, place the tortilla on a dish with the kidneys and seasoning in the center.

  5. Fold the tortilla over.

  6. 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 when cooked, forming the body of the tortilla.
Kidneys
Provide the main meaty filling, becoming tender when stewed in stock.
Butter
Adds richness and helps the tortilla brown in the pan.
Milk
Loosens the egg mixture, giving a softer, more tender set.

The step that matters

Shaking the pan while the eggs set. Moving the pan keeps the loose egg mixture from sticking and scorching on the hot surface before it sets, so the tortilla cooks evenly and browns without burning.

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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