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Bacon and Eggs

Baked eggs with bacon, gravy, and cream served in a baking dish.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 7 ingredients
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Why it works: Flour and egg are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 15% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 106,462 recipes. Both carry isobutyraldehyde, which smells malty, green. The science ↓

Bacon and 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 bacon

  1. Cut the bacon into thin, long slices and cook in a frying pan over low heat, turning often, until crisp.

  2. Pour off and strain the bacon fat, then measure out 2 tablespoons and pour it into a baking dish.

Make the base

  1. Add the gravy and cream to the dish, mixing in the flour and baking soda.

  2. Place the dish in a pan with boiling water at the bottom, ensuring the water does not overflow.

  3. Stir the mixture on the stove until hot, then break the eggs on top.

Bake and serve

  1. Transfer the dish to a 400°F (200°C) oven and bake until the eggs are set.

  2. Serve with the bacon arranged around the eggs.

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. Flour + eggtop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together106,462 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  2. Cream + flourtop 20% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together30,481 recipes

    Shared aroma: acetaldehyde (pungent, ethereal).

  3. Cream + eggtop 24% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together42,166 recipes

    Shared aroma: acetic acid (sour, vinegar).

Flour and egg barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 106,462 recipes: they work on texture and structure more than aroma.

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

What each ingredient does

Eggs
Set when heated, giving the dish its structure and body.
Bacon
Adds salty, savoury flavour and crisp texture from rendered fat.
Bacon fat
Carries flavour and keeps the eggs and base moist and rich.
Cream
Adds richness and softness to the base mixture.
Flour
Thickens the base so it holds together around the eggs.

The step that matters

Stir the base until hot, then break the eggs on top. Eggs set through heat, and the base should be warm but not scrambled before baking. Keeping the water bath from overflowing also keeps gentle, even heat on the eggs, preventing them from cooking unevenly or becoming rubbery.

“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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