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Baked Eggs

A simple baked eggs dish with butter, breadcrumbs, parsley, onion juice, salt, pepper, cheese, and eggs.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 10 ingredients
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Why it works: Parsley and pepper 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 ↓

Baked Eggs

Oven, in the book's wordsA moderately hot oven

Ingredients

Directions

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

Prepare the base

  1. Melt 3 tablespoons of butter in a baking dish on the stove.

  2. Sprinkle 1 tablespoon of bread crumbs, 1 tablespoon of parsley, and 10 drops of onion juice over the melted butter.

  3. Season with ½ teaspoon of salt and a pinch of pepper.

  4. Heat for 5 minutes.

Bake the eggs

  1. Carefully break in 6 eggs.

  2. Place in a 350°F (175°C) oven until the whites are set.

  3. Sprinkle 3 tablespoons of grated cheese and ½ tablespoon of butter on top.

  4. Season again with ½ teaspoon of salt and a pinch of white pepper.

  5. Return to the oven until the cheese is melted.

Serve

  1. 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. Parsley + peppertop 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. Bread + cheesetop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together2,130 recipes

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

  4. Butter + cheesetop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together7,962 recipes

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

  5. Parsley + oniontop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together25,843 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
Set into a firm custard-like texture as they bake in the dish.
Butter
Adds richness and fat, carrying the seasonings across the dish.
Grated cheese
Melts over the eggs, adding savory flavor and a golden surface.
Bread crumbs
Absorb the melted butter and add a light, toasted texture.

The step that matters

Bake until the whites are set. Eggs keep cooking from residual heat, so pulling them when the whites are just set keeps the yolks soft and prevents a rubbery texture.

Swap the white pepper

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

  1. Thymefits better
  2. Capersfits better
  3. Garlicfits better
  4. White pepperthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against butter, bread, parsley, onion, pepper, egg, cheese. 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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