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Shirred Egg

A baked egg coated in bread crumbs.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 4 ingredients
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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 ↓

Shirred Egg

Oven, in the book's wordsA slow oven

Ingredients

Directions

The book says “a slow oven”. The 300°F (150°C) in the steps is the modern equivalent, not the book's own figure.

Prepare the dish

  1. Butter a small baking dish.

  2. Cover the bottom and sides with fine bread crumbs.

Assemble and bake

  1. Carefully add 1 egg.

  2. Cover the egg with seasoned bread crumbs.

  3. Bake in a 300°F (150°C) oven until the egg white is firm and the crumbs are brown.

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. Bread + eggtop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together22,662 recipes

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

  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

Egg
Sets into a firm, tender layer as the white cooks while the yolk stays soft.
Fine bread crumbs
Form a crisp, browned crust around the egg and help hold its shape.
Butter
Greases the dish so the crumbs and egg release cleanly and the base browns.

The step that matters

Carefully add 1 egg.. Adding the egg gently keeps the yolk intact and centred in the crumbs. Breaking the yolk or spreading the white unevenly leads to uneven setting, so the white may cook before the yolk is warm.

“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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