Name: Scalloped Eggs
Ingredients: 12 hard-boiled eggs; grated bread crumbs; butter; pepper; coarse sea salt; 1½ cups sweet cream or milk

Why it works: Bread and butter are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 7% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 27,232 recipes. Both carry delta-decalactone, which smells sweet, creamy. The science ↓

Scalloped Eggs

Ingredients

Directions

The book gives no oven temperature. The 350°F (175°C) in the steps was added when the recipe was transcribed, as a starting point.

Prepare

Slice the hard-boiled eggs thinly in rings.
In a well-buttered baking dish, place a layer of grated bread crumbs.

Layer and bake

Add a layer of sliced eggs, cover with bits of butter, and sprinkle with pepper and salt.
Repeat layering until the dish is full, ensuring the top is covered with bread crumbs.
Pour 1½ cups of sweet cream or milk over the top.
Bake in a moderately heated oven at 350°F (175°C) until browned.

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.

Bread + buttertop 7% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together27,232 recipes

Shared aroma: delta-decalactone (sweet, creamy).
Butter + creamtop 8% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together41,516 recipes

Shared aroma: delta-dodecalactone (sweet, creamy).
Egg + breadtop 13% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together22,662 recipes

Shared aroma: (e)-2-octenal (fatty, green).
Bread + peppertop 16% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together20,964 recipes

Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).
Egg + buttertop 17% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together118,967 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: Form the bulk of the dish and set into a tender, custard-like texture when baked.
Bread crumbs: Absorb liquid and add body, with the top layer crisping and browning in the oven.
Sweet cream or milk: Provides moisture that softens the bread crumbs and helps the eggs set into a creamy texture.
Butter: Adds richness and helps the top brown as it melts through the layers.

“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.