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Dessert

To Make a Hen's Nest

A dessert made by filling hollowed eggs with a stiffened jelly mixture and topping with lemon‑striped straw.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
By Keokuk (Iowa). Westminster Presbyterian church · From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 4 ingredients
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Why it works: Egg and lemon are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 19% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 44,316 recipes. Both carry (e,e)-2,4-decadienal, which smells fatty, deep fried. The science ↓

To Make a Hen's Nest

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the eggs

  1. Get five small eggs.

  2. Make a hole at one end of each egg.

  3. Empty the shells.

  4. Fill the eggs with blanc mange.

  5. When the mixture is stiff and cold, take off the shells.

Make the nest

  1. Pare the yellow rind very thin from six lemons.

  2. Boil the lemon rinds in water until tender.

  3. Cut the tender rinds into thin strips to resemble straw.

  4. Preserve the strips with sugar.

  5. Fill a small deep dish half full of nice jelly.

  6. When the jelly is set, put the straw on in the form of a nest.

  7. Lay the eggs in the nest.

Nutrition, whole recipe (rough)

90Calories
7 gProtein
5 gFat
4 gCarbs
What these numbers assume: 2 portions
IngredientPortion assumedkcal
Egg1 large egg (50g)78
Lemonjuice of 1 lemon (48ml)12

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

By Keokuk (Iowa). Westminster Presbyterian church. 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. Egg + lemontop 19% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together44,316 recipes

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

Egg and lemon barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 44,316 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

Lemons
Their yellow rind supplies aroma and flavour for the straw-like strips.
Sugar (in the method)
Preserves the rind strips and adds sweetness.
Jelly
Sets firm to hold the straw nest and the eggs in place.

The step that matters

When the mixture is stiff and cold, take off the shells.. Blanc mange and jelly only hold their shape once fully set and chilled. Removing the shells before the mixture is firm can cause the eggs to crack or slump.

“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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