Name: Breakfast
Ingredients: 1 lightly-boiled egg; a small piece of white fish or bacon; 1 light savory omelette; toast or bread and butter; 1 cup weak tea or coffee with milk

Why it works: Fish and bread are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 10% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 1,668 recipes. Both carry 2-undecenal, which smells sweet. The science ↓

Breakfast

Ingredients

1 lightly-boiled egg
a small piece of white fish or bacon
1 light savory omelette
toast or bread and butter
1 cup weak tea or coffee with milk

Directions

Prepare

Boil the egg lightly.
Prepare a small piece of white fish or bacon.
Make a light savory omelette.

Serve

Serve with toast or buttered bread.
Brew a cup of weak tea or coffee with 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.

Fish + breadtop 10% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together1,668 recipes

Shared aroma: 2-undecenal (sweet).
Egg + breadtop 13% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together22,662 recipes

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

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together383 recipes

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

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together72 recipes

Shared aroma: 4-heptenal (creamy, biscuit).
Egg + fishtop 22% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together2,782 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

Eggs: Provide structure and richness, setting into a soft or firm texture when cooked.
White fish or bacon: Supplies protein and savory flavor as the main component of the plate.
Bread: Adds a neutral, starchy base that soaks up the egg and any savory juices.

“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.