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Minced Eggs

A creamy dish of minced hard‑boiled eggs cooked in milk, butter, and flour.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
By F. L. Gillette and Hugo Ziemann · From a historical cookbook (Project Gutenberg) · 4 ingredients
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Why it works: Milk and butter are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 7% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 81,283 recipes. Both carry (z)-4-heptenal, which smells biscuit, cream. The science ↓

Minced Eggs

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. Chop four or five hard-boiled eggs, but do not mince them too finely.

  2. Place a cupful of milk, a tablespoonful of butter, salt, pepper, and some savory chopped small in a suitable dish over the fire.

Make the sauce

  1. When the mixture comes to a boil, stir in a tablespoonful of flour dissolved in a little cold milk.

  2. When it cooks thick like cream, add the minced eggs.

  3. Stir gently around and around for a few moments.

Serve

  1. Serve, garnished with slices of toast.

  2. Optionally, add flavorings such as mushrooms, truffles, catsup, essence of shrimp, or shredded anchovy.

Nutrition, whole recipe (rough)

784Calories
27 gProtein
26 gFat
108 gCarbs
What these numbers assume: 4 portions
IngredientPortion assumedkcal
Flour1 cup (125g) all-purpose455
Milk1 cup (244ml) whole149
Butter1 tbsp (14g)102
Egg1 large egg (50g)78

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. Milk + buttertop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together81,283 recipes

    Shared aroma: (z)-4-heptenal (biscuit, cream).

  2. Butter + flourtop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together124,287 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  3. Milk + flourtop 14% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together78,219 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  4. Flour + eggtop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together106,462 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  5. Butter + eggtop 17% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together118,967 recipes

    Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).

Butter and flour barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 124,287 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

Milk
Forms the liquid base of the creamy sauce.
Butter
Adds richness and fat that carries flavor and smooths the sauce.
Flour
Thickens the milk into a creamy sauce that holds the eggs.
Eggs
Provide the main body, texture and savory substance of the dish.

The step that matters

Stirring in the flour mixture. Flour must be whisked into a boiling liquid, not added raw; it thickens by starch gelatinizing as it heats. Adding it too fast or unmixed creates lumps, so stir steadily while it thickens.

“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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