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Buttered Eggs with Tomatoes

Eggs baked in tomato shells with butter, cream, and parsley.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 6 ingredients
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Why it works: Pepper and parsley match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 2% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 34,122 recipes. Both carry 4'-methylacetophenone, which smells bitter almond. The science ↓

Buttered Eggs with Tomatoes

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. Choose fine medium tomatoes; peel, cut off the tops, and remove the center.

  2. Beat four eggs with three tablespoonfuls of cream and season with salt and pepper.

  3. Set tomatoes in the oven to warm.

  4. Warm two ounces of butter in a saucepan.

Make the filling

  1. Pour the egg mixture into the saucepan.

  2. Stir quickly until it begins to set.

  3. Put the mixture into the tomato shells.

Bake and serve

  1. Set in the oven for five minutes.

  2. Serve on croutons of toast, sprinkle with parsley, and serve hot.

Nutrition, whole recipe (rough)

238Calories
7 gProtein
22 gFat
3 gCarbs

Counts 6 of 7 ingredients. The other 1 aren't in our nutrition table and add nothing above, so the real totals are higher.

What these numbers assume: 6 portions
IngredientPortion assumedkcal
Butter1 tbsp (14g)102
Egg1 large egg (50g)78
Cream1 tbsp (15ml) heavy51
Black Pepper1 tsp ground (2.3g)6
Parsley1 tbsp chopped fresh (3.8g)1
Salt1 tsp (6g)0
Saucenot in our table0

One typical portion per ingredient; the recipe's quantities are not counted. A rough guide only, not for medical or dietary planning.

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. See the original page.

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. Pepper + parsleytop 2% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together34,122 recipes

    Shared aroma: 4'-methylacetophenone (bitter almond).

  2. Cream + buttertop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together41,516 recipes

    Shared aroma: delta-dodecalactone (sweet, creamy).

  3. Cream + saucetop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together4,787 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).

  4. Butter + saucetop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together15,338 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).

  5. Butter + parsleytop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together28,563 recipes

    Shared aroma: trans-2-hexenal (green, leafy).

Butter and sauce barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 15,338 recipes: they work on texture and structure more than aroma.

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

What each ingredient does

Eggs
Set when heated, giving the filling its structure and body.
Cream
Adds moisture and richness, keeping the eggs soft and tender.
Butter
Adds fat and flavor and helps the eggs cook gently without sticking.
Tomatoes (in the method)
Hold the filling as edible shells and add a slight acidity.

The step that matters

Stir quickly until it begins to set. Eggs cook fast over heat. Stirring keeps curds small and soft, while letting them sit turns them dry and rubbery.

Swap the parsley

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (cream, butter, sauce, egg, pepper):

  1. Nutmegfits about as well
  2. Tarragonfits about as well
  3. Parsleythe original
  4. Capersfits about as well

Fit is the average pairing score against cream, butter, sauce, egg, pepper. 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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