Why it works: Parsley and pepper match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 2% of all ingredient pairs, and 34,122 recipes mention both. Both carry 4'-methylacetophenone, which smells bitter almond. The science ↓
Eggs Poached in Tomatoes
Ingredients
Directions
Make the sauce
Put a quart can of tomatoes in a saucepan over the fire with half an onion, three cloves, a bay leaf, a sprig of parsley, a saltspoonful of sugar, and salt and pepper to taste.
Cook until the onion is tender, about ten minutes, then remove from the fire.
Press the mixture through a sieve fine enough to retain the seeds.
Put the strained sauce in a spider.
Poach the eggs
Rub an even teaspoonful of potato flour with a tablespoonful of butter.
Add the flour-butter mixture to the sauce.
When the sauce boils, break in as many eggs as required.
Keep the eggs from sticking to the pan by running a tablespoon of butter carefully around the edges.
When the eggs are set, remove them from the sauce.
Serve
Place each egg on a round of nice toast and pour the sauce around them.
Garnish with parsley and serve.
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 aroma chemistry they share, and how many recipes mention both.
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Parsley + peppertop 2% of all pairsAroma overlapstrongMentioned together34,122 recipes
Shared aroma: 4'-methylacetophenone (bitter almond).
-
Clove + peppertop 5% of all pairsAroma overlapstrongMentioned together17,451 recipes
Shared aroma: ethyl octanoate (fruity, wine).
-
Parsley + clovetop 6% of all pairsAroma overlapstrongMentioned together6,768 recipes
Shared aroma: cuminaldehyde (Spicy, cumin).
-
Parsley + buttertop 15% of all pairsAroma overlapmoderateMentioned together28,563 recipes
Shared aroma: trans-2-hexenal (green, leafy).
-
Sugar + buttertop 17% of all pairsAroma overlapmoderateMentioned together98,233 recipes
Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).
Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs
What each ingredient does
- Eggs (in the method)
- Set and form the main body of the dish as they cook in the simmering sauce.
- Tomatoes (in the method)
- Provide the acidic, flavourful base that the sauce is built on.
- Potato flour (in the method)
- Thickens the sauce so it coats the eggs and toast instead of running off.
- Butter
- Adds richness and helps keep the eggs from sticking to the pan.
The step that matters
Keep the eggs from sticking to the pan by running a tablespoon of butter carefully around the edges.. Egg whites stick to hot metal as they set, and a little butter at the edges helps the eggs release cleanly. Adding the eggs to a gently boiling sauce, rather than a vigorous one, also helps them keep their shape.
Flavor stand-ins for the clove
How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (parsley, sugar, butter, pepper):
- Thymebetter flavor fit
- Nutmegbetter flavor fit
- Marjorambetter flavor fit
- Clovethe original
Fit is the average pairing score against parsley, sugar, butter, pepper. Candidates are from the same food group and used in at least 100 recipes. This compares flavor only: it does not check the job the ingredient does in the dish (bulk, moisture, acidity, structure).
“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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