Skip to main content
Main

Egg Loaf

A baked or steamed loaf of eggs and cream sauce, served with fried bread.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 10 ingredients
Jump to recipe ↓

Why it works: Butter and bread are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 7% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 27,232 recipes. Both carry delta-decalactone, which smells sweet, creamy. The science ↓

Egg Loaf

Ingredients

Directions

The book gives no oven temperature. The 350°F (175°C) in the steps was added when the recipe was transcribed, as a starting point.

Prepare the mold

  1. Butter a charlotte mold.

  2. Decorate the bottom and sides with dried cooked asparagus tips.

Make the custard

  1. In a bowl, combine the cream, white sauce, béchamel, or tomato sauce with the chopped hard boiled eggs and beaten egg yolks.

  2. Season the mixture with onion juice, salt, and pepper.

  3. Carefully pour the mixture into the decorated mold.

Bake and serve

  1. Steam or bake the mold in a pan of hot water at 350°F (175°C) for 30 minutes, or until the center is firm.

  2. Turn the loaf out onto a hot dish.

  3. Serve with round croustades of fried bread topped with remaining asparagus bits dressed in cream sauce.

Recipe from a historical cookbook (Internet Archive).

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.

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. Butter + breadtop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together27,232 recipes

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

  2. Butter + creamtop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together41,516 recipes

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

  3. Asparagus + oniontop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together1,212 recipes

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

  4. Asparagus + peppertop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,968 recipes

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

  5. Onion + peppertop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together68,474 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

Hard boiled eggs
Provide the chopped egg body that gives the loaf its substance and sliceable texture.
Egg yolks
Bind the mixture and help it set into a firm, smooth loaf when heated.
Cream, white sauce, béchamel, or tomato sauce
Supplies moisture and richness so the loaf stays tender rather than dry.

The step that matters

Steam or bake in a water bath until the center is firm. Egg proteins set gently and can curdle or turn rubbery if overheated, so gentle heat in hot water and checking the center keeps the loaf smooth and tender.

Swap the onion

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

  1. Spinachfits better
  2. Leekfits better
  3. Potatofits better
  4. Onionthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against butter, asparagus, cream, egg, pepper, bread. 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.

You might also like

Brown BreadBrown Bread461 recipesAsparagus SoupAsparagus Soup179 recipesWhite BreadWhite Bread80 recipesAsparagus SaladAsparagus Salad77 recipes