Why it works: Egg and butter are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 17% of all ingredient pairs, and 118,967 recipes mention both. Both carry decanal, which smells soap, orange peel. The science ↓
Egg Soup
Ingredients
Directions
Combine 1 pint of water, 1 egg yolk, 1 ounce of butter, and 1 ounce of sugar in a pot.
Heat over medium until it begins to simmer, stirring continuously.
Pour the mixture several times between the pot and a basin until it is smooth and frothy.
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 aroma chemistry they share, and how many recipes mention both.
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Egg + buttertop 17% of all pairsAroma overlapmoderateMentioned together118,967 recipes
Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).
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Butter + sugartop 17% of all pairsAroma overlapmoderateMentioned together98,233 recipes
Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).
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Egg + sugartop 21% of all pairsAroma overlapmoderateMentioned together122,807 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).
Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs
What each ingredient does
- Egg yolk
- Thickens the broth and gives it a rich, creamy body as it heats.
- Butter
- Adds fat for richness and a smooth mouthfeel.
- Sugar
- Adds sweetness and balances the richness of the yolk and butter.
The step that matters
Heating the egg yolk mixture. Egg yolk proteins set when heated, so the mixture should be kept over medium heat and stirred constantly. Overheating or letting it boil can curdle the yolk and leave it grainy instead of smooth.
“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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