Name: A Fricassee of Eggs
Ingredients: 6 hard-boiled eggs; 1 rich sauce (prepared as for boiled chicken); sippets (toasted bread); 1 whole egg yolk (for garnish)

Why it works: Egg and bread are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 13% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 22,662 recipes. Both carry (e)-2-octenal, which smells fatty, green. The science ↓

A Fricassee of Eggs

Ingredients

6 hard-boiled eggs
1 rich sauce (prepared as for boiled chicken)
sippets (toasted bread)
1 whole egg yolk (for garnish)

Directions

Prepare

Boil the eggs until hard, then slice them into rounds.
Prepare a rich sauce similar to that used for boiled chicken.

Assemble

Pour the sauce over the sliced eggs.
Arrange slices of toasted bread around the eggs and place a whole yolk in the center of the plate.

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.

Egg + breadtop 13% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together22,662 recipes

Shared aroma: (e)-2-octenal (fatty, green).
Chicken + breadtop 14% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together2,258 recipes

Shared aroma: ethyl caproate (fruity).
Sauce + breadtop 22% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked together4,934 recipes

Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).
Sauce + chickentop 23% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked together4,513 recipes

Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).
Egg + chickentop 30% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together8,991 recipes

Shared aroma: (e,e)-2,4-decadienal (fatty, deep fried).

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

What each ingredient does

Hard-boiled eggs: Form the main body of the dish, providing firm, substantial protein for the sauce to coat.
Rich sauce: Adds moisture and richness, coating the eggs and giving the dish its creamy texture.

“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.