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Sauted Eggs

Sautéed eggs cooked in butter, optionally served with boiled ham or bacon.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 3 ingredients
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Why it works: Butter and ham are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 16% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 5,475 recipes. Both carry trans-2-decenal, which smells waxy, orange. The science ↓

Sauted Eggs

Ingredients

Directions

  1. Melt the butter in a saucepan over medium heat.

  2. Break one egg into the pan at a time, ensuring the butter does not brown.

  3. If desired, turn the eggs with a spatula and cook until fully set.

  4. Serve with boiled ham or bacon, keeping the meat warm on a platter.

  5. Cook the eggs in the drippings from the meat if using.

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 + hamtop 16% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together5,475 recipes

    Shared aroma: trans-2-decenal (waxy, orange).

  2. Egg + hamtop 17% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together4,526 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2,4-decadienal (seaweed).

  3. Butter + eggtop 17% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together118,967 recipes

    Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).

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

What each ingredient does

Butter
Adds richness and flavor and helps keep the eggs from sticking to the pan.
Eggs
Their proteins set when heated, giving the dish its structure and texture.

The step that matters

Keep the butter from browning. Overheated butter turns bitter and can scorch the egg whites, which toughen as they set. Medium heat lets the whites set gently and evenly.

“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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