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Eggs Aux Fines Herbes

A French dish of poached eggs served with a herb‑flavored sauce and fried breadcrumbs.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
By F. L. Gillette and Hugo Ziemann · From a historical cookbook (Project Gutenberg) · 13 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 ↓

Eggs Aux Fines Herbes

Ingredients

Directions

Make the sauce

  1. Roll an ounce of butter in a good teaspoonful of flour.

  2. Season with pepper, salt and nutmeg.

  3. Put the mixture into a coffee cupful of fresh milk, together with two teaspoonfuls of chopped parsley.

  4. Stir and simmer for fifteen minutes.

  5. Add a teacupful of thick cream.

Poach the eggs

  1. Put a quart of hot water, a tablespoonful of vinegar and a teaspoonful of salt into a frying pan.

  2. Break each egg separately into a saucer.

  3. Slip the egg carefully into the hot water.

  4. Simmer three or four minutes until the white is set.

  5. Lift the eggs out into a hot dish with a skimmer.

  6. Empty the pan of its contents.

Finish and serve

  1. Put in half a cup of cream, or rich milk; if milk, add a large spoonful of butter.

  2. Add pepper and salt to taste.

  3. Thicken with a very little cornstarch.

  4. Let it boil up once.

  5. Turn the sauce over the dish of poached eggs.

  6. Serve on toast or without.

  7. Warm the cream in butter in a separate dish so the eggs may not have to stand.

Nutrition, whole recipe (rough)

708Calories
20 gProtein
24 gFat
99 gCarbs

Counts 9 of 10 ingredients. The other 1 aren't in our nutrition table and add nothing above, so the real totals are higher.

What these numbers assume: 9 portions
IngredientPortion assumedkcal
Flour1 cup (125g) all-purpose455
Butter1 tbsp (14g)102
Egg1 large egg (50g)78
Cream1 tbsp (15ml) heavy51
Nutmeg1 tsp ground (2.2g)12
Black Pepper1 tsp ground (2.3g)6
Vinegar1 tbsp (15ml) distilled3
Parsley1 tbsp chopped fresh (3.8g)1
Salt1 tsp (6g)0
Waternot 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 F. L. Gillette and Hugo Ziemann. Recipe from a historical cookbook (Project Gutenberg).

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. Butter + creamtop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together41,516 recipes

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

  5. Flour + nutmegtop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together18,623 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

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

What each ingredient does

Eggs
Provide the main body of the dish, set by gentle poaching.
Butter
Adds richness and a smooth, silky mouthfeel to the sauce.
Flour
Thickens the butter and milk into a smooth base for the sauce.
Cream
Adds richness and body to the sauce, softening its flavour.
Cornstarch (in the method)
Thickens the sauce further so it coats the eggs.
Vinegar
Acidity in the poaching water helps the egg whites set more neatly.

The step that matters

Simmer the eggs gently until the white is set. Water at a hard boil breaks up the eggs, while a gentle simmer lets the white coagulate around the yolk. Vinegar in the water also helps the white set quickly and hold its shape.

Swap the parsley

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

  1. Tarragonfits about as well
  2. Cinnamonfits about as well
  3. Parsleythe original
  4. Allspicefits about as well

Fit is the average pairing score against butter, flour, vinegar, cream, egg, pepper, nutmeg. 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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