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A Breakfast Table

A breakfast spread featuring muskmelons, eggs, cream of wheat, ham, bread, butter, coffee, and sugar.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 10 ingredients
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Why it works: Wheat and milk are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 6% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 2,418 recipes. Both carry (e,z)-2,6-nonadienal, which smells cucumber, melon. The science ↓

A Breakfast Table

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. Boil water for the cereal.

  2. Put the cereal on to cook.

  3. Lay the table.

  4. Prepare the melon and place it in a cool area.

  5. Prepare the ham and start frying it.

  6. Make the coffee.

  7. Pour water and place butter on a plate.

Serve

  1. Serve the melon.

  2. Serve the cereal, ham and eggs, coffee, and bread.

  3. Clear the table.

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. Wheat + milktop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together2,418 recipes

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

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

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

  3. Milk + buttertop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together81,283 recipes

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

  4. Ham + breadtop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together2,536 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-acetyl-1-pyrroline (popcorn, roasted).

  5. Cream + buttertop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together41,516 recipes

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

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

What each ingredient does

Eggs
Set and bind when cooked, giving the breakfast its main protein course.
Ham
Frying browns its surface and adds savoury, salty flavour.
Butter
Adds richness and fat to the table, melting into bread and cereal.
Milk
Adds moisture and creaminess to the cereal and drinks.
Cream
Adds richness and fat, giving a smoother, more luxurious texture.
Bread
Provides starch and bulk, soaking up butter and any juices on the plate.

“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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