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Eggs, Fried

Fried eggs cooked in dripping, butter, or oil, served on bacon or ham.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 3 ingredients
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Why it works: Butter and ham are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 16% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 5,475 recipes. Both carry trans-2-decenal, which smells waxy, orange. The science ↓

Eggs, Fried

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. Ensure the frying pan is scrupulously clean.

  2. Heat the pan.

  3. Add dripping, butter, or oil.

Cook the eggs

  1. Break each egg into a cup.

  2. Slip the egg into the hot pan.

  3. Raise the egg's edges with a spatula.

  4. Ladle some butter over the yolk.

  5. Remove the eggs with a spatula.

  6. Trim rough edges.

  7. Drain excess grease.

Serve

  1. Serve on slices of bacon.

  2. Place in the center of a dish garnished with bacon or ham.

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 + hamtop 16% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together5,475 recipes

    Shared aroma: trans-2-decenal (waxy, orange).

  2. Egg + hamtop 17% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together4,526 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2,4-decadienal (seaweed).

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

    Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).

Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs

What each ingredient does

Eggs
Set into the main structure of the dish, with the white firming as it cooks and the yolk staying soft.
Dripping, butter, or oil
Conducts heat to the egg and keeps it from sticking to the pan, while adding flavour.

The step that matters

Slip the egg into the hot pan. A properly heated pan sets the white quickly so it holds its shape and does not spread or stick. A cold pan lets the white spread thinly and cook unevenly, and the egg can stick and tear when lifted.

“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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