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Scrambled Eggs

Scrambled eggs cooked in bacon fat with milk, salt, and pepper.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 5 ingredients
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Why it works: Egg and milk are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 18% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 88,785 recipes. Both carry 2-nonenal, which smells fatty, green. The science ↓

Scrambled Eggs

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. Break the egg and drop the contents into a bowl.

  2. Beat the egg slightly with a fork.

  3. Measure and add the milk, using slightly less than the spoon can hold.

  4. Add salt and pepper to taste.

Cook

  1. Heat the bacon fat in a frying pan over medium heat.

  2. Pour the egg mixture into the pan and cook slowly, scraping from the bottom with a tablespoon.

  3. Serve the scrambled eggs hot.

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 + milktop 18% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together88,785 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).

  2. Milk + peppertop 22% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together26,984 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl 2-methylbutyrate (fruity, apple).

  3. Egg + peppertop 33% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together50,580 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).

Egg and pepper barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 50,580 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

Egg
Coagulates as it heats, forming soft curds that give the scrambled eggs their structure.
Milk
Adds moisture and creaminess, keeping the curds tender rather than dry.
Bacon fat
Coats the pan and adds fat, so the eggs do not stick and gain a savory flavor.

The step that matters

Cook slowly over medium heat, scraping the bottom. Egg proteins set quickly at high heat and turn rubbery. Gentle heat and constant scraping form small, tender curds and prevent scorching on the pan bottom.

“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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