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Eggs Divorcon

A poached egg served on onion puree with Bearnaise sauce, and a fried egg on spinach puree topped with tomato sauce.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 6 ingredients
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Why it works: Spinach and tomato are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 7% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 1,350 recipes. Both carry trans-2-decenal, which smells waxy, orange. The science ↓

Eggs Divorcon

Ingredients

Directions

Poach the egg

  1. Bring a deep saucepan of water to a boil.

  2. Add a pinch of salt to the boiling water.

  3. Carefully crack the egg, ensuring the yolk remains intact.

  4. Poach the egg for 1.5 minutes.

  5. Lift the poached egg with a skimmer.

  6. Place the poached egg on a bed of onion puree.

  7. Spread 1 tablespoon of Bearnaise sauce over the poached egg.

Fry and serve

  1. Fry another egg.

  2. Fold the white over the yolk with a knife.

  3. Cook the fried egg for 1 minute.

  4. Remove the fried egg and place it on spinach puree.

  5. Spread tomato sauce over the fried egg.

  6. Serve.

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. Spinach + tomatotop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,350 recipes

    Shared aroma: trans-2-decenal (waxy, orange).

  2. Onion + spinachtop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together3,336 recipes

    Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).

  3. Onion + tomatotop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together20,633 recipes

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

  4. Sauce + tomatotop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together5,469 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).

  5. Sauce + oniontop 19% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together10,474 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).

Sauce and onion barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 10,474 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

Egg
Its proteins set when heated, giving the dish its main structure and body.
Bearnaise sauce
Its rich emulsified butter and egg yolk add fat and a creamy texture.
Onion puree
Provides a soft, savoury base that cushions the egg.
Spinach puree
Adds a soft, earthy base and moisture beneath the fried egg.
Tomato sauce
Adds acidity and moisture that cut through the richness of the egg and sauce.

The step that matters

Poach the egg for 1.5 minutes. Egg whites set at moderate heat while the yolk stays runny, so the timing must be exact. Too long and the yolk firms; too short and the white stays unset and wispy.

Swap the onion

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

  1. Capsicumfits better
  2. Asparagusfits better
  3. Lettucefits better
  4. Onionthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against egg, sauce, spinach, tomato. 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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