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Bread

Eggs in Cases

Eggs baked in fried bread rounds, topped with cream and salt.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 5 ingredients
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Why it works: Butter and cream are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 8% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 41,516 recipes. Both carry delta-dodecalactone, which smells sweet, creamy. The science ↓

Eggs in Cases

Oven, in the book's wordsThe warm oven

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the bread

  1. Cut slices of the loaf or roll half an inch thick, removing some crumbs without breaking the crust.

  2. Heat butter or lard in a frying pan and fry the crust rounds until light brown.

  3. Drain and place the rounds in a buttered dish.

Add the eggs and bake

  1. Carefully break an egg into each round, keeping the yolk centered.

  2. Pour 1 teaspoon of cream and a pinch of salt over each egg.

  3. Place the dish on the stove or in a warm oven until the egg whites are set.

  4. Serve 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. Butter + creamtop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together41,516 recipes

    Shared aroma: delta-dodecalactone (sweet, creamy).

  2. Butter + eggtop 17% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together118,967 recipes

    Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).

  3. Egg + creamtop 24% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together42,166 recipes

    Shared aroma: acetic acid (sour, vinegar).

Egg and cream barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 42,166 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

Eggs
Set to a firm white around the yolk, forming the filling of each case.
Cream
Adds moisture and richness, keeping the egg tender as it sets.
Butter or lard
Fries the bread crust, adding browning and rich flavor.

The step that matters

Setting the egg whites. Egg whites set at a moderate heat, and the yolk thickens more slowly. Too much heat toughens and dries the white before the yolk is ready, so the dish should be checked often while it sits on the stove or in the oven.

“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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