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Breakfast

Breakfast

A simple breakfast of egg, fish, toast, butter, and cocoa or milk.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 5 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 ↓

Breakfast

Ingredients

Directions

  1. Cook the egg to your preference.

  2. Serve the fish alongside the egg.

  3. Spread butter on the bread.

  4. Serve with cocoa or milk.

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. Fish + breadtop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,668 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-undecenal (sweet).

  3. Fish + buttertop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together4,488 recipes

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

  4. Bread + cocoatop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together103 recipes

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

  5. Egg + breadtop 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

Egg
Its proteins set when heated, giving the dish a firm, cooked texture.
Fish
Provides the main protein and savory flavor of the breakfast.
Bread
Gives a starchy base that holds the butter and carries the meal.
Butter
Adds fat for richness and a smooth, flavorful coating on the bread.
Cocoa or milk
Provides liquid and fat to accompany the meal.

The step that matters

Cook the egg to your preference. Egg proteins tighten as they heat, so overcooking makes the egg rubbery and dry. Watching the time keeps the white tender and the yolk at the texture you want.

Swap the cocoa

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (egg, fish, bread, butter):

  1. Peasfits better
  2. Cocoathe original
  3. Walnutfits about as well
  4. Almondfits about as well

Fit is the average pairing score against egg, fish, bread, butter. 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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