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Egg Chops

Fried egg‑based patties coated in breadcrumbs, served with Bechamel sauce or French peas.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 11 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 ↓

Egg Chops

Ingredients

Directions

Make the base

  1. Remove shells from the hard-boiled eggs.

  2. Rub the yolks through a sieve.

  3. Coarsely chop the whites.

  4. In a double boiler, heat 1 cup of milk.

  5. In a bowl, rub together 1 tablespoon of butter and 2 tablespoons of flour.

  6. Add the beaten egg to the butter-flour mixture.

  7. Mix a little warm milk into the butter-flour mixture.

  8. Stir the mixture into the boiling milk.

  9. Season with salt and pepper.

  10. Stir until thick and smooth.

  11. Remove from heat and let cool slightly.

  12. Stir in the prepared yolks, whites, and onion juice if desired.

Shape and fry

  1. When cool enough to handle, mold the mixture into chop shapes using a tin mold or your hands.

  2. Roll the chops in a beaten egg.

  3. Coat the chops with bread crumbs.

  4. Fry in oil until golden brown.

Garnish and serve

  1. Garnish with a sprig of parsley.

  2. Serve on a platter with Bechamel sauce or French peas.

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. Milk + buttertop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together81,283 recipes

    Shared aroma: (z)-4-heptenal (biscuit, cream).

  4. Onion + parsleytop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together25,843 recipes

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

  5. Milk + breadtop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together11,466 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-undecenal (sweet).

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

What each ingredient does

Hard-boiled eggs
Provide the main body of the chops, with yolks and whites giving texture and richness.
Milk
Forms the thick white sauce that binds the egg mixture together.
Butter
Enriches the sauce and helps form the smooth base with the flour.
Flour
Thickens the milk into a stable binder that holds the chops in shape.
Beaten egg
Adds binding and creates a coating that helps the crumbs stick.
Bread crumbs
Form a crisp, browned outer crust when fried.

The step that matters

Let the mixture cool enough before shaping. A hot, loose sauce will not hold its shape and can slump or split. Cooling lets the starch set so the chops keep their form through breading and frying.

Swap the onion

The recipe marks onion as optional. How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (egg, milk, butter, flour, pepper, bread, parsley):

  1. Shallotfits better
  2. Chivefits better
  3. Potatofits better
  4. Onionthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against egg, milk, butter, flour, pepper, bread, parsley. 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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