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Poached Eggs with Mushrooms

Poached eggs served with a buttered mushroom sauce.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
By Warren, Pa. Presbyterian church. Second auxiliary missionary society. [from old catalog] · From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 6 ingredients
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Why it works: Lemon and white pepper are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 16% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 1,658 recipes. Both carry eucalyptol, which smells eucalyptus, herbal. The science ↓

Poached Eggs with Mushrooms

Ingredients

Directions

Cook the mushrooms

  1. Take 1 can of mushrooms.

  2. Place in a sauce pan with a tablespoon butter.

  3. Season with a teaspoon salt and a pinch of white pepper.

  4. Add 2 drops of lemon juice.

  5. Cook for ten minutes.

Plate and serve

  1. Thicken the sauce and prepare 10 poached eggs.

  2. Pour the sauce onto a platter.

  3. Arrange the eggs around the dish.

  4. Put the mushrooms in the center and serve hot with toast.

Nutrition, whole recipe (rough)

96Calories
7 gProtein
5 gFat
6 gCarbs
What these numbers assume: 4 portions
IngredientPortion assumedkcal
Egg1 large egg (50g)78
Lemonjuice of 1 lemon (48ml)12
Black Pepper1 tsp ground (2.3g)6
Salt1 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.

By Warren, Pa. Presbyterian church. Second auxiliary missionary society. [from old catalog]. 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. Lemon + white peppertop 16% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together1,658 recipes

    Shared aroma: eucalyptol (eucalyptus, herbal).

  2. Lemon + eggtop 19% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together44,316 recipes

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

  3. Egg + white peppertop 21% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together2,312 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-methylbutyraldehyde (malty, chocolate).

Lemon and egg 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

Mushrooms (in the method)
Provide the main body and earthy flavour, and release liquid that becomes the sauce.
Eggs
Their proteins set when poached, giving a soft, tender texture around a runny yolk.
Butter (in the method)
Adds fat and richness, helping carry flavour through the mushroom sauce.
Lemon juice
Adds a small amount of acidity that brightens the flavour of the sauce.

The step that matters

Thicken the sauce. A sauce thickens as its liquid reduces and its starches or proteins set with heat. Too little cooking leaves it thin and watery, while too much can scorch or become overly dense.

Swap the white pepper

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (lemon, egg):

  1. Parsleyfits better
  2. Dillfits better
  3. Tarragonfits better
  4. White pepperthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against lemon, egg. 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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