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Piedmontese Eggs

A baked egg dish with anchovies, stock, and cheese.

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 ↓

Piedmontese Eggs

Oven, in the book's wordsA quick oven

Ingredients

Directions

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

Prepare the anchovies

  1. Remove the bones and skin from the anchovies and mince them finely.

  2. Warm the anchovies in 2 cups of stock without letting it get too hot.

Make the custard

  1. Whip the yolks of the eggs and stir in the beaten whites, parsley, pepper, and salt.

  2. Add the egg mixture to the stock and stir over low heat until smooth.

  3. Pour the mixture into a well-buttered dish lined with slices of toast.

Bake and serve

  1. Cover the top with grated cheese and bake for 10 minutes at 400°F (200°C).

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

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

  3. Parsley + buttertop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together28,563 recipes

    Shared aroma: trans-2-hexenal (green, leafy).

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

    Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).

  5. Pepper + cheesetop 18% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together7,861 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).

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

What each ingredient does

Egg yolks
Set the custard and add richness to the savory mixture.
Egg whites
Beaten whites add lightness and help the custard rise and stay airy.
Anchovies
Add a salty, savory depth that flavors the whole custard.
Stock
Provides the liquid base that the eggs thicken into a smooth custard.
Grated cheese
Melts and browns on top, adding savory flavor and color.

The step that matters

Stir the egg mixture over low heat until smooth. Egg proteins set at moderate temperatures. If the mixture gets too hot or heats too fast, the eggs can scramble and curdle instead of forming a smooth, creamy custard.

“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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