Name: Eggs a LA Golden Rod
Ingredients: 12 hard-boiled eggs; 2 tablespoons butter; 2 heaping tablespoons flour; 1 pint hot milk; Coarse sea salt to taste; Rounds of buttered toast; Bacon, cut into ribbons and crisped

Why it works: Butter and milk are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 7% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 81,283 recipes. Both carry (z)-4-heptenal, which smells biscuit, cream. The science ↓

Eggs a LA Golden Rod

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

Chop the whites of the hard-boiled eggs and grate the yolks.
Prepare rounds of slightly buttered toast.

Make the sauce

In a saucepan, blend the butter and flour, then gradually pour in the hot milk.
Cook until thickened, then stir in the chopped egg whites and season with salt.

Serve

Pour the egg mixture over the toast and sprinkle with the grated yolks.
Garnish with the crisped bacon ribbons.

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.

Butter + milktop 7% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together81,283 recipes

Shared aroma: (z)-4-heptenal (biscuit, cream).
Butter + flourtop 12% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked together124,287 recipes

Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
Flour + milktop 14% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked together78,219 recipes

Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
Egg + flourtop 15% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked together106,462 recipes

Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
Egg + buttertop 17% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together118,967 recipes

Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).

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: Chopped whites add body and the grated yolks give a crumbly, rich topping.
Butter: Adds richness and flavor to the sauce and helps the flour cook smoothly.
Flour: Thickens the hot milk into a smooth, coating sauce as it cooks.
Milk: Forms the liquid base of the sauce, which thickens as it heats.

The step that matters

Cook the flour and butter with the milk until thickened. Flour must be fully blended and the sauce cooked until thickened so starch swells and the sauce turns smooth rather than lumpy or floury-tasting. Pouring the hot milk in gradually helps prevent lumps.

“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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Eggs a LA Golden Rod