Why it works: Pepper and parsley 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 ↓
Onion Salad
Ingredients
Directions
The book gives no oven temperature. The 400°F (200°C) in the steps was added when the recipe was transcribed, as a starting point.
Prepare the crumbs
Preheat the oven to 400°F (200°C).
Spread the biscuit or bread crumbs on a baking sheet and bake until brittle, then sift them.
Make the salad
In a bowl, combine the crumbs with the finely cut onions.
Chop the whites of 2 hard-boiled eggs and mix them with the crumbs.
Pour in the melted butter and season with vinegar, black pepper, and salt.
Add lukewarm water gradually until the mixture is smooth.
Transfer the mixture to a glass dish and press it down evenly.
Top and garnish
Sieve the yolks of the hard-boiled eggs over the salad until fully covered.
Slice the remaining egg whites into rings and half circles, and arrange them on top.
Garnish with parsley leaves.
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.
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Pepper + parsleytop 2% of all pairsSmell alikestrongCooked together34,122 recipes
Shared aroma: 4'-methylacetophenone (bitter almond).
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Biscuit + oniontop 8% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together428 recipes
Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).
-
Onion + parsleytop 9% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together25,843 recipes
Shared aroma: 2,4-decadienal (seaweed).
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Biscuit + parsleytop 10% of all pairsSmell alikestrongCooked together204 recipes
Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).
-
Onion + peppertop 11% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together68,474 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
What each ingredient does
- Biscuit or light-bread crumbs
- Form the base of the salad and absorb the butter and water to set a soft, moist texture.
- Onions
- Add sharp, aromatic flavor that cuts through the rich butter and eggs.
- Hard-boiled eggs
- Add richness and body, with the sieved yolks giving a fine, smooth topping.
- Melted butter
- Adds fat for richness and helps bind the crumbs with a smooth mouthfeel.
- Vinegar
- Adds acidity that brightens the flavor and balances the richness of the butter and eggs.
The step that matters
Toasting the crumbs until brittle. Crumbs that are not fully dried and brittle stay soft and damp, so they cannot absorb the butter and water evenly and the salad turns pasty instead of light.
Swap the onion
How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (biscuit, egg, butter, vinegar, pepper, parsley):
- Shallotfits better
- Chivefits better
- Mustardfits better
- Onionthe original
Fit is the average pairing score against biscuit, egg, butter, vinegar, pepper, parsley. 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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