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Daisy Eggs

A baked dish of layered egg whites and yolks with white sauce, breadcrumbs, and toasted bread strips, garnished with parsley.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 5 ingredients
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Why it works: Egg and bread are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 13% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 22,662 recipes. Both carry (e)-2-octenal, which smells fatty, green. The science ↓

Daisy Eggs

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

  1. Separate the whites and yolks of the hard boiled eggs, saving the whites of two for decoration.

  2. Prepare one pint of white sauce.

  3. Have the buttered bread crumbs ready.

  4. Run the egg whites through a ricer.

  5. Run the yolks through a ricer, keeping them separate.

  6. Add the riced egg whites to the sauce.

Assemble

  1. Layer the sauce alternately with the yolks.

  2. Sprinkle breadcrumbs over the layers.

  3. Cover the top with breadcrumbs, yolks, and bits of butter.

  4. Form daisies on top using strips of egg whites with yolks for centers.

Bake and serve

  1. Bake in the oven at 350°F (175°C) for 10 to 15 minutes.

  2. Garnish with parsley.

  3. Serve on a plate with toasted bread.

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. Egg + breadtop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together22,662 recipes

    Shared aroma: (e)-2-octenal (fatty, green).

  2. Bread + parsleytop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together8,588 recipes

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

  3. Egg + parsleytop 21% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together18,765 recipes

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

  4. Sauce + breadtop 22% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together4,934 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).

  5. Sauce + parsleytop 23% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together6,693 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).

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 main body, with riced whites adding structure and yolks adding richness and color.
White sauce
Binds the riced eggs together and keeps the layers moist during baking.
Bread crumbs
Form a crisp, golden topping through browning in the oven.

The step that matters

Forming the daisies. Egg white strips and yolk centers must be placed carefully on a sauce that is not too loose, so the pattern holds its shape rather than sinking or smearing during baking.

Swap the parsley

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (egg, sauce, bread):

  1. Capersfits better
  2. Nutmegfits about as well
  3. Parsleythe original
  4. Tarragonfits about as well

Fit is the average pairing score against egg, sauce, 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.

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