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 ↓
Egged Veal Hash
Ingredients
Directions
Prepare and cook
Chop the veal into fine pieces.
Moisten the veal with gravy or water.
Heat the mixture until hot.
Break in 3 to 4 eggs and cook until set.
Finish and serve
Stir in 1 tablespoon of butter and serve immediately.
If desired, add a little parsley.
If you need more volume, add ½ cup of fine stale bread-crumbs.
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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Butter + breadtop 7% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together27,232 recipes
Shared aroma: delta-decalactone (sweet, creamy).
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Egg + breadtop 13% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together22,662 recipes
Shared aroma: (e)-2-octenal (fatty, green).
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Butter + parsleytop 15% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together28,563 recipes
Shared aroma: trans-2-hexenal (green, leafy).
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Bread + parsleytop 15% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together8,588 recipes
Shared aroma: 2,4-decadienal (seaweed).
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Veal + breadtop 17% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together3,056 recipes
Shared aroma: cis-3-hexenol (green, grassy).
Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs
What each ingredient does
- Veal
- Provides the main body and meaty flavour of the hash.
- Eggs
- Set when cooked, binding the hash together and adding richness.
- Gravy or water
- Moistens the chopped veal so it stays tender while heating.
- Butter
- Adds fat and a rich, savoury flavour at the end.
- Bread-crumbs
- Absorb moisture and add bulk, giving more volume to the hash.
The step that matters
Break in 3 to 4 eggs and cook until set. Eggs set as their proteins coagulate with heat. Cooking just until set keeps them tender, while overcooking makes them dry and rubbery and can toughen the hash.
Swap the parsley
The recipe marks parsley as optional. How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (veal, egg, butter, bread):
- Nutmegfits about as well
- Parsleythe original
- Capersfits about as well
- Sagefits less well
Fit is the average pairing score against veal, egg, butter, 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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