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German Toast

A toast topped with a mixture of cold stew, gravy, eggs, parsley, onion, and bread crumbs, baked and finished with lemon juice.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 9 ingredients
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Why it works: Parsley and lemon match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 14,037 recipes. Both carry beta-phellandrene, which smells minty, terpene. The science ↓

German Toast

Oven, in the book's wordsA moderate oven

Ingredients

Directions

The book says “a moderate oven”. The 350°F (175°C) in the steps is the modern equivalent, not the book's own figure.

Prepare the filling

  1. Mince the cold stew or fricassee finely.

  2. Mix the minced stew with the gravy, eggs, parsley, and onion.

  3. Stir the mixture over low heat until reduced by one-third.

  4. Let the mixture cool completely.

Assemble and bake

  1. Spread it on pieces of toast.

  2. Brush the top with beaten egg and sprinkle with bread crumbs.

  3. Bake in a moderate oven at 350°F (175°C) for 15 minutes or until heated through.

Serve

  1. Before serving, squeeze a little lemon juice over the toast.

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. Parsley + lemontop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together14,037 recipes

    Shared aroma: beta-phellandrene (minty, terpene).

  2. Parsley + oniontop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together25,843 recipes

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

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

    Shared aroma: (e)-2-octenal (fatty, green).

  4. Parsley + breadtop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together8,588 recipes

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

  5. Onion + breadtop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together8,676 recipes

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

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

What each ingredient does

Eggs
Bind the filling and help it set into a spreadable, sliceable mass when heated.
Gravy
Adds moisture and savoury flavour, and thickens as it is reduced.
Bread crumbs
Form a crisp, browned topping on the baked surface.
Onion
Contributes aromatic sweetness and body to the filling.

The step that matters

Reducing the gravy mixture. Stirring over low heat until one-third of the liquid has evaporated concentrates the flavour and thickens the filling. If it stays too wet, it will soak into the toast and the eggs may not set properly during baking.

Swap the onion

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (egg, parsley, bread, lemon):

  1. Shallotfits better
  2. Asparagusfits better
  3. Spinachfits better
  4. Onionthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against egg, parsley, bread, lemon. 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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