Why it works: Butter and cream are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 8% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 41,516 recipes. Both carry delta-dodecalactone, which smells sweet, creamy. The science ↓
Curried Eggs
Ingredients
Directions
Prepare the eggs
Boil the eggs in hot water for 20 minutes.
Remove the shells and slice the eggs into rounds.
Make the sauce
Sauté the onion in butter until golden brown.
Stir in the flour and curry powder until smooth.
Gradually add the white stock, cream, or milk, stirring constantly.
Season with salt and pepper and cook until the onion is soft.
Add the sliced eggs and heat through.
Serve
Serve on toast or cover hot toast with the egg slices and sauce.
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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Butter + creamtop 8% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together41,516 recipes
Shared aroma: delta-dodecalactone (sweet, creamy).
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Onion + peppertop 11% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together68,474 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).
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Butter + flourtop 12% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together124,287 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
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Onion + buttertop 15% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together42,912 recipes
Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).
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Egg + flourtop 15% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together106,462 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
Butter and flour barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 124,287 recipes: they work on texture and structure more than aroma.
Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs
What each ingredient does
- Eggs
- Provide the main protein and the sliced body of the dish.
- Butter
- Carries the onion and adds richness and flavour to the sauce.
- Flour
- Thickens the liquid into a smooth sauce when cooked with the butter.
- Curry powder
- Supplies the spiced aroma that defines the dish.
- White stock, cream, or milk
- Forms the liquid base of the sauce, adding moisture and body.
The step that matters
Gradually add the liquid while stirring. Adding the stock, cream, or milk slowly while stirring constantly lets the starch in the flour disperse and hydrate evenly. Dumping it in at once can form lumps that are hard to smooth out.
Swap the onion
How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (egg, butter, flour, cream, pepper):
- Spinachfits better
- Leekfits better
- Chivefits better
- Onionthe original
Fit is the average pairing score against egg, butter, flour, cream, 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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