Why it works: Egg and pepper are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 33% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 50,580 recipes. Both carry 2-nonenal, which smells fatty, green. The science ↓
Beauregard Eggs
Ingredients
Directions
Prepare the sauce
Boil 5 eggs hard; shell, chop the whites fine and rub the yolks through a sieve.
Bring a pint milk to a boil, rub a lump of butter the size of a walnut with 1 tablespoon cornstarch, and stir smoothly into the boiling milk; add the egg whites, pepper and salt to taste.
Assemble and serve
Put 5 squares of buttered toast on a hot platter, spread with the sauce, sprinkle with the grated yolks, again with the sauce, and finish with the yolks; dust with salt and pepper, and stand in the oven a moment before serving.
Nutrition, whole recipe (rough)
What these numbers assume: 4 portions
| Ingredient | Portion assumed | kcal |
|---|---|---|
| Flour | 1 cup (125g) all-purpose | 455 |
| Egg | 1 large egg (50g) | 78 |
| Black Pepper | 1 tsp ground (2.3g) | 6 |
| Salt | 1 tsp (6g) | 0 |
One typical portion per ingredient; the recipe's quantities are not counted. A rough guide only, not for medical or dietary planning.
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.
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Egg + peppertop 33% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together50,580 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).
Egg and pepper barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 50,580 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
- Egg whites are chopped into the sauce and yolks are sieved for garnish, adding body and rich flavour.
- Cornstarch
- Thickens the boiling milk into a smooth sauce that coats the toast.
- Milk (in the method)
- Forms the liquid base of the sauce, carrying the egg and seasoning.
- Butter
- Enriches the sauce with fat and flavour and helps the cornstarch blend smoothly.
The step that matters
Stirring the cornstarch into the boiling milk. Cornstarch must be rubbed with butter and stirred smoothly into boiling milk so it thickens evenly. Adding it dry or to cool milk can cause lumps, leaving the sauce grainy instead of smooth.
“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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