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Scrambled Egg

A simple scrambled egg served on toast, seasoned with salt and pepper and garnished with parsley.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 6 ingredients
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Why it works: Pepper and parsley match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 2% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 34,122 recipes. Both carry 4'-methylacetophenone, which smells bitter almond. The science ↓

Scrambled Egg

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. Butter the toast.

  2. Keep the toast warm.

  3. Melt the butter in a pan.

Make the scrambled eggs

  1. Mix beaten egg and milk.

  2. Add salt and pepper.

  3. Pour the egg mixture into the melted butter.

  4. Stir briskly over low heat until it thickens and becomes creamy.

Serve

  1. Pile the scrambled eggs on the toast.

  2. Garnish with parsley.

  3. Serve immediately.

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. Pepper + parsleytop 2% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together34,122 recipes

    Shared aroma: 4'-methylacetophenone (bitter almond).

  2. Milk + buttertop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together81,283 recipes

    Shared aroma: (z)-4-heptenal (biscuit, cream).

  3. Butter + parsleytop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together28,563 recipes

    Shared aroma: trans-2-hexenal (green, leafy).

  4. Egg + buttertop 17% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together118,967 recipes

    Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).

  5. Egg + milktop 18% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together88,785 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

Eggs
Set into soft curds as they heat, giving the dish its body and texture.
Butter
Enriches the eggs and keeps them from sticking while they cook gently in the pan.
Milk
Adds moisture so the eggs stay tender and creamy rather than dry.
Toast
Provides a crisp, absorbent base that holds the soft eggs.

The step that matters

Stir briskly over low heat. Eggs turn grainy and watery if they cook too fast or too hot. Low heat with constant stirring lets the proteins set slowly into soft, creamy curds.

Swap the parsley

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (pepper, egg, milk, butter):

  1. Nutmegfits about as well
  2. Parsleythe original
  3. Cinnamonfits about as well
  4. Tarragonfits less well

Fit is the average pairing score against pepper, egg, milk, butter. 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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