Why it works: Black tea and egg work together. They rank in the top 36% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 36 recipes. Both carry 2-nonenal, which smells fatty, green. The science ↓
English Breakfast or Oolong
Ingredients
Directions
Brew
Put 2 teaspoons of black tea in a teapot that holds about 2 cups.
Pour boiling water over the tea and let it steep for 10 minutes.
After steeping, let the teapot sit by the fire for 5 minutes.
Add the egg (optional)
If using the egg substitute, beat 1 new laid egg in a basin.
Gradually pour the tea over the beaten egg while stirring to prevent curdling.
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.
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Black tea + eggtop 36% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together36 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).
Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs
What each ingredient does
- Black tea
- Supplies the main flavour, tannins and colour of the brew.
The step that matters
Pour the tea over the egg gradually while stirring. Adding hot liquid slowly and stirring constantly spreads the heat evenly, so the egg warms gently instead of scrambling or curdling.
“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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