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Scalloped Eggs

Scalloped Eggs are baked eggs with ham, breadcrumbs, butter, milk, and crackers.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 8 ingredients
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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

Oven, in the book's wordsA hot oven

Ingredients

Directions

The book says “a hot oven”. The 400°F (200°C) in the steps is the modern equivalent, not the book's own figure.

Prepare

  1. Mix minced ham, bread crumbs, salt, pepper, and melted butter.

  2. Add milk to moisten until quite soft.

Fill and top

  1. Half fill buttered gem pans with the mixture.

  2. Carefully break 1 egg on top of each.

  3. Dust with salt and pepper.

  4. Sprinkle with powdered crackers.

Bake and serve

  1. Bake in a 400°F (200°C) oven for 8 minutes.

  2. Serve hot.

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

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

  2. Butter + milktop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together81,283 recipes

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

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

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

  4. Bread + milktop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together11,466 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-undecenal (sweet).

  5. Bread + eggtop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together22,662 recipes

    Shared aroma: (e)-2-octenal (fatty, green).

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

What each ingredient does

Eggs
Set when baked, forming a soft cooked centre above the crumb base.
Bread crumbs
Absorb the milk and butter to form a soft, sliceable base for the dish.
Milk
Moistens the crumbs so the mixture stays soft and tender while baking.
Minced ham
Adds savoury flavour and substance to the crumb base.
Butter
Adds richness and fat, carrying flavour and helping the crumbs brown lightly.
Powdered crackers
Forms a crisp, browned crust over the top as it bakes.

The step that matters

Carefully break 1 egg on top of each. Eggs cook quickly and unevenly if the yolk breaks or the pan is overfilled. Placing each egg gently on the mixture keeps the yolk whole and the white set in a neat, even portion.

“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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