Skip to main content
Breakfast

Eggs À LA Suisse

A creamy omelette with cheese served on buttered toast.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
By Fannie Merritt Farmer · From a historical cookbook (Project Gutenberg) · 7 ingredients
Jump to recipe ↓

Why it works: Cream and butter are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 8% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 41,516 recipes. Both carry delta-dodecalactone, which smells sweet, creamy. The science ↓

Eggs À LA Suisse

Ingredients

Directions

Cook the eggs

  1. Heat a small omelet pan, put in butter, and when melted, add cream.

  2. Slip in the eggs one at a time, sprinkle with salt, pepper, and a few grains of cayenne.

  3. When whites are nearly firm, sprinkle with cheese.

  4. Finish cooking, and serve on buttered toast.

Serve

  1. Strain cream over the toast.

Nutrition, whole recipe (rough)

356Calories
14 gProtein
32 gFat
4 gCarbs
What these numbers assume: 7 portions
IngredientPortion assumedkcal
Cheese1 oz (28g) cheddar113
Butter1 tbsp (14g)102
Egg1 large egg (50g)78
Cream1 tbsp (15ml) heavy51
Black Pepper1 tsp ground (2.3g)6
Cayenne1 tsp (1.8g)6
Salt1 tsp (6g)0

One typical portion per ingredient; the recipe's quantities are not counted. A rough guide only, not for medical or dietary planning.

By Fannie Merritt Farmer. 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. Cream + buttertop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together41,516 recipes

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

  2. Butter + cheesetop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together7,962 recipes

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

  3. Cream + cheesetop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together2,655 recipes

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

  4. Egg + buttertop 17% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together118,967 recipes

    Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).

  5. Pepper + cheesetop 18% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together7,861 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).

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

What each ingredient does

Eggs
Their proteins set when heated, giving the dish its firm, tender body.
Cream
Adds moisture and richness, keeping the eggs soft and creamy rather than dry.
Butter
Adds fat and flavor and helps keep the eggs from sticking to the pan.
Grated cheese
Adds savory flavor and some browning when it melts over the eggs.

The step that matters

Finish cooking when the whites are nearly firm. Egg proteins keep setting from residual heat after the pan is removed from the heat. Cooking too long makes the yolks firm and the texture rubbery, so it is best to stop while the eggs still look slightly soft.

“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.

You might also like

Rice GruelRice Gruel28 recipesPeptoned Milk GruelPeptoned Milk Gruel9 recipes