Why it works: Tea and apricot work together. They rank in the top 15% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 34 recipes. Both carry 4-methoxybenzaldehyde, which smells sweet, anise. The science ↓
Eggs and Bacon in Flummery
Ingredients
Directions
Prepare the layers
Color part of the flummery pink with cochineal.
Dip a potting pot in cold water.
Pour a layer of red flummery, about ¼ inch thick, into the potting pot.
Add a layer of white flummery.
Add another layer of red flummery.
Finish with a thicker layer of white flummery.
Ensure each layer is stiff and cold before adding the next.
Set the cups
Place a large spoonful of white flummery into each tea-cup.
Let the spoonfuls sit overnight.
Unmold and serve
Turn the flummery out of the potting pots onto a plate with cold water.
Cut the flummery into thin slices.
Arrange the slices on a serving dish.
Turn the flummery from the cups onto the dish, removing a bit from the top of each.
Place half an apricot in each indentation to resemble a poached egg yolk.
Garnish with flowers.
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.
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Tea + apricottop 15% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together34 recipes
Shared aroma: 4-methoxybenzaldehyde (sweet, anise).
Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs
What each ingredient does
- Flummery
- Forms the set, sliceable body of the dish, holding its layers together when chilled.
- Cochineal
- Colors part of the flummery pink, giving the red layers their contrast.
- Apricot
- Adds fruit flavor and a bright yellow-orange color beside the white flummery.
The step that matters
Ensure each layer is stiff and cold before adding the next. If a layer is still soft, the next pour will mix into it and blur the sharp bands of color. Chilling until firm lets each layer hold its edge.
“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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