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Cold Bacon and Eggs

Small fried balls of bacon, eggs, and potato coated in egg and cracker crumbs.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 7 ingredients
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Why it works: Potato and butter are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 13% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 6,456 recipes. Both carry (z)-4-heptenal, which smells biscuit, cream. The science ↓

Cold Bacon and Eggs

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. Chop the leftover bacon and eggs finely in a wooden bowl.

  2. Add a little mashed or cold chopped potato and bacon gravy if available.

  3. Mix well and form into small balls.

Coat and fry

  1. Roll each ball in raw egg and then in cracker crumbs.

  2. Fry in a skillet over medium heat until golden brown on both sides.

Serve

  1. Serve hot.

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. Potato + buttertop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together6,456 recipes

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

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

    Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).

  3. Egg + potatotop 29% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together4,978 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

Leftover eggs
Bind the chopped mixture together and help it hold its shape.
Mashed or cold chopped potato
Adds bulk and moisture, keeping the balls tender inside.
Raw egg
Forms a sticky layer that helps the cracker crumbs adhere to the balls.
Cracker crumbs
Form a crisp outer crust that browns when fried.

The step that matters

Fry until golden brown on both sides. Medium heat lets the coating brown and crisp while the inside heats through. Too high a heat can scorch the crumbs before the centre is hot, and too low leaves the coating pale and greasy.

Swap the potato

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

  1. Asparagusfits better
  2. Chivefits better
  3. Leekfits about as well
  4. Potatothe original

Fit is the average pairing score against egg, butter. 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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