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Omelet Macaroni

A fried dish of macaroni mixed with beaten eggs, parsley, cheese, nutmeg, salt, pepper, and butter.

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 ↓

Omelet Macaroni

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. Cut the macaroni into small pieces.

  2. Beat the eggs well and mix them with the macaroni.

Season and cook

  1. Add the parsley, cheese, nutmeg, salt, and pepper; mix well.

  2. Heat the butter in a large frying pan and fry the mixture until set.

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. Parsley + nutmegtop 3% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together5,062 recipes

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

  3. Nutmeg + peppertop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together13,015 recipes

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

  4. Cheese + buttertop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together7,962 recipes

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

  5. Parsley + buttertop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together28,563 recipes

    Shared aroma: trans-2-hexenal (green, leafy).

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

What each ingredient does

Eggs
Set and bind the mixture into a firm, cohesive omelet as they cook.
Macaroni
Provides the bulk and body that gives the omelet its substance.
Grated cheese
Adds savory richness and flavor that melts into the eggs.
Butter
Adds fat for frying, giving flavor and helping the omelet brown lightly.

The step that matters

Frying the mixture until set. Over-high heat browns and toughens the outside before the centre sets, while too little heat leaves the egg runny. Gentle, steady heat lets the eggs coagulate evenly through the omelet.

Swap the nutmeg

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

  1. Thymefits better
  2. Tarragonfits about as well
  3. Dillfits about as well
  4. Nutmegthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against egg, parsley, cheese, pepper, butter. 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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