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Eggs, Genoa

A baked egg dish with cheese, breadcrumbs, butter, pepper, salt, and parsley.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 7 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 ↓

Eggs, Genoa

Oven, in the book's wordsA hot oven

Ingredients

Directions

The book says “a hot oven”. The 400°F (200°C) in the steps is the modern equivalent, not the book's own figure.

Prepare

  1. Preheat the oven to 400°F (200°C).

  2. Butter a baking tin.

Assemble

  1. Lay slices of cheese in the tin.

  2. Sprinkle pepper and salt over the cheese.

  3. Break in the eggs on top.

  4. Cover with bread crumbs and add oiled butter.

Bake and serve

  1. Bake for 12 to 15 minutes.

  2. Sprinkle minced parsley over before serving.

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. Butter + breadtop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together27,232 recipes

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

  3. Cheese + breadtop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together2,130 recipes

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

  4. Cheese + buttertop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together7,962 recipes

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

  5. Egg + breadtop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together22,662 recipes

    Shared aroma: (e)-2-octenal (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 a firm custard-like layer that holds the dish together when baked.
Cheese
Melts into a rich, gooey base that binds with the eggs.
Bread crumbs
Crisp and brown on top, adding texture against the soft eggs.
Oiled butter
Adds fat that helps the crumbs brown and enriches the flavour.

The step that matters

Breaking in the eggs. Eggs should sit whole on top of the cheese so their whites set around the yolks. Breaking them carefully keeps the yolks intact and prevents the whites from spreading and overcooking unevenly.

Swap the parsley

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

  1. Parsleythe original
  2. Nutmegfits about as well
  3. Thymefits less well
  4. Sagefits less well

Fit is the average pairing score against egg, cheese, pepper, 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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