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Goderich, Lake Huron

Eggs in a creamy onion gravy made with butter, flour, milk, pepper, salt, and nutmeg.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
By Jacqueline Harrison Smith (ed.) · From a historical cookbook (Project Gutenberg) · 6 ingredients
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Why it works: Pepper and nutmeg match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 7% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 13,015 recipes. Both carry 4'-methylacetophenone, which smells bitter almond. The science ↓

Goderich, Lake Huron

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. Slice 6 hard boiled eggs.

  2. Cut a large mild onion into thin slices.

Make the onion gravy

  1. Put the onion in a frying pan with 3 tablespoons of butter, and stir until delicately brown.

  2. Add 2 tablespoons of flour; pepper, salt, and nutmeg if desired; cup of rich milk.

  3. Stir and boil for a few minutes.

Finish and serve

  1. Now add eggs and set saucepan over hot water until eggs are reheated.

  2. Serve.

Nutrition, whole recipe (rough)

653Calories
20 gProtein
19 gFat
98 gCarbs
What these numbers assume: 6 portions
IngredientPortion assumedkcal
Flour1 cup (125g) all-purpose455
Butter1 tbsp (14g)102
Egg1 large egg (50g)78
Nutmeg1 tsp ground (2.2g)12
Black Pepper1 tsp ground (2.3g)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 Jacqueline Harrison Smith (ed.). 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. Pepper + nutmegtop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together13,015 recipes

    Shared aroma: 4'-methylacetophenone (bitter almond).

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

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

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

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  4. Egg + flourtop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together106,462 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  5. Butter + nutmegtop 16% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together24,377 recipes

    Shared aroma: eucalyptol (eucalyptus, herbal).

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

Hard boiled eggs
Form the main body of the dish, carried in the sauce.
Butter
Adds fat and richness and helps the onions brown gently.
Flour
Thickens the milk into a smooth gravy as it boils.
Rich milk (in the method)
Forms the liquid base of the gravy, adding creaminess.
Onion (in the method)
Adds savoury sweetness and flavour as it browns in butter.

The step that matters

Stir and boil the gravy before adding the eggs. Flour must be stirred and boiled for a few minutes so its starch swells and thickens the milk; otherwise the gravy stays thin and tastes raw. Reheating the eggs gently over hot water, rather than boiling them, keeps the whites tender and prevents the yolks from turning rubbery.

Swap the nutmeg

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

  1. Parsleyfits about as well
  2. Nutmegthe original
  3. Capersfits less well
  4. Tarragonfits less well

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