Name: Eggs with Hollandaise Sauce
Ingredients: 2 tablespoons flour; 2 tablespoons butter; hot water (enough to make a gravy); coarse sea salt (to taste); pepper (to taste); a little sugar; vinegar or lemon juice (to taste); hard boiled eggs or fried eggs; 1 heaping tablespoon finely cut bacon (if using fried eggs)

Why it works: Flour and butter are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 12% of all ingredient pairs, and 124,287 recipes mention both. Both carry isobutyraldehyde, which smells malty, green. The science ↓

Eggs with Hollandaise Sauce

Ingredients

2 tablespoons flour
2 tablespoons butter
hot water (enough to make a gravy)
coarse sea salt (to taste)
pepper (to taste)
a little sugar
vinegar or lemon juice (to taste)
hard boiled eggs or fried eggs
1 heaping tablespoon finely cut bacon (if using fried eggs)

Directions

Brown the flour in the butter in a pan.
Pour in enough hot water to create a gravy.
Add salt, pepper, sugar, and vinegar or lemon juice to taste.
Pour the sauce over hard boiled eggs or fried eggs.
If using fried eggs, substitute bacon for the butter.

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 aroma chemistry they share, and how many recipes mention both.

Flour + buttertop 12% of all pairs

Aroma overlaplow

Mentioned together124,287 recipes

Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
Pepper + vinegartop 14% of all pairs

Aroma overlapmoderate

Mentioned together27,814 recipes

Shared aroma: 4'-methylacetophenone (bitter almond).
Flour + sugartop 15% of all pairs

Aroma overlapmoderate

Mentioned together92,116 recipes

Shared aroma: phenylacetaldehyde (hawthorne, honey).
Sugar + vinegartop 15% of all pairs

Aroma overlapmoderate

Mentioned together20,806 recipes

Shared aroma: beta-damascenone (apple, rose).
Flour + eggtop 15% of all pairs

Aroma overlaplow

Mentioned together106,462 recipes

Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

Flour and butter share little aroma chemistry, yet 124,287 recipes mention both: they likely work on texture and structure more than aroma.

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

Tomato Soup526 recipes

Brown Bread461 recipes

Mutton Broth292 recipes

Yorkshire Pudding264 recipes

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Eggs with Hollandaise Sauce