Why it works: Butter and milk 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 ↓
Eggs Au Gratin
Ingredients
Directions
Prepare
Boil twelve eggs hard, shell and cut them in slices and lay them in a deep dish in close circular rows.
Make the sauce
Make a sauce of a tablespoonful of butter, the yolks of four eggs, a little grated cheese, and half a pint of milk, and stir this over the fire until it thickens.
Bake
Pour it over the eggs, strew some bread crumbs on top, and bake for ten minutes.
Nutrition, whole recipe (rough)
What these numbers assume: 3 portions
| Ingredient | Portion assumed | kcal |
|---|---|---|
| Milk | 1 cup (244ml) whole | 149 |
| Butter | 1 tbsp (14g) | 102 |
| Egg | 1 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.
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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Butter + milktop 7% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together81,283 recipes
Shared aroma: (z)-4-heptenal (biscuit, cream).
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Butter + eggtop 17% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together118,967 recipes
Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).
-
Milk + eggtop 18% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together88,785 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).
Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs
What each ingredient does
- Eggs
- Hard-boiled eggs form the bulk of the dish, while the yolks in the sauce thicken it as they set.
- Butter
- Fat that enriches the sauce and gives it a smooth, rich mouthfeel.
- Milk
- Liquid base of the sauce that thickens with heat into a creamy binder.
- Grated cheese (in the method)
- Adds savory flavor and helps the sauce brown lightly in the oven.
The step that matters
Stirring the sauce until it thickens. Egg yolks and milk thicken as they heat, but if the sauce gets too hot or is not stirred constantly, the yolks can curdle and turn 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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