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Vegetarian Cookery

A layered dish of hard‑boiled egg slices and a buttery Parmesan sauce, baked until lightly browned.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
By Payne, A. G. (Arthur Gay), 1840-1894 · From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 12 ingredients
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Why it works: Parsley and pepper 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 ↓

Vegetarian Cookery

Ingredients

Directions

Make the sauce

  1. Make about half a pint of butter sauce, heat it over the fire, and stir in about two ounces of Parmesan cheese, a quarter of a nutmeg grated, some white pepper, and the juice of half a lemon.

  2. Make this hot, then add the yolks of four eggs.

  3. Stir the mixture quickly until it begins to thicken; when it does, remove it from the fire immediately, but continue stirring for another minute.

Assemble

  1. While the sauce is cooking, prepare some hard‑boiled eggs, cut them into slices, and arrange the larger slices in a circle on a dish.

  2. Spread a layer of the mixture over the egg slices, then place a smaller layer of egg slices on top, followed by another layer of mixture, and continue alternating layers until a pyramid shape is formed.

Bake and serve

  1. Spread the remaining mixture over the top surface, sprinkle powdered light‑coloured bread‑raspings mixed with grated Parmesan cheese over the whole, and place the dish in the oven to heat and slightly brown.

  2. Serve. Some fried bread cut into pretty shapes can be used to ornament the base.

Nutrition, whole recipe (rough)

309Calories
17 gProtein
25 gFat
4 gCarbs

Counts 7 of 8 ingredients. The other 1 aren't in our nutrition table and add nothing above, so the real totals are higher.

What these numbers assume: 7 portions
IngredientPortion assumedkcal
Parmesan Cheese1 oz (28g)110
Butter1 tbsp (14g)102
Egg1 large egg (50g)78
Nutmeg1 tsp ground (2.2g)12
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.

By Payne, A. G. (Arthur Gay), 1840-1894. 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. Parsley + peppertop 2% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together34,122 recipes

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

  2. Parsley + nutmegtop 3% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together5,062 recipes

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

  3. Pepper + nutmegtop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together13,015 recipes

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

  4. Parmesan cheese + buttertop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together4,163 recipes

    Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).

  5. Parmesan cheese + peppertop 14% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together5,322 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl 2-methylbutyrate (fruity, apple).

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

What each ingredient does

Eggs
Hard-boiled slices form the body of the dish, while yolks thicken the sauce.
Butter sauce
Provides a rich, smooth base that carries the cheese and eggs.
Parmesan cheese
Adds savoury, salty flavour and browns on the surface in the oven.
Bread raspings (in the method)
Form a crisp, golden topping when heated in the oven.

The step that matters

Stir the sauce off the heat once it thickens. Egg yolks set quickly with heat and can curdle or scramble if overcooked, so removing the sauce from the fire as soon as it thickens keeps it smooth.

Swap the nutmeg

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

  1. Capersfits better
  2. Tarragonfits about as well
  3. Thymefits about as well
  4. Nutmegthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against parmesan cheese, parsley, 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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