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English Monkey

A savory omelette made with eggs, cream, deviled ham, cheese, beer, and Tabasco sauce.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 7 ingredients
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Why it works: Cream and butter are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 8% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 41,516 recipes. Both carry delta-dodecalactone, which smells sweet, creamy. The science ↓

English Monkey

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the eggs

  1. Beat the eggs well and add the cream and deviled ham.

Cook the omelette

  1. Melt the butter in a chafing dish.

  2. Add the shredded cheese and melt together.

  3. Stir in the egg, cream, and ham mixture.

  4. Add the beer and Tabasco sauce to taste.

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. Cream + buttertop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together41,516 recipes

    Shared aroma: delta-dodecalactone (sweet, creamy).

  2. Butter + cheesetop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together7,962 recipes

    Shared aroma: delta-dodecalactone (sweet, creamy).

  3. Cream + saucetop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together4,787 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).

  4. Cheese + beertop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together174 recipes

    Shared aroma: 5-ethyl-3-hydroxy-4-methyl-2(5h)-furanone (spice).

  5. Butter + saucetop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together15,338 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).

Butter and sauce barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 15,338 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 into the structure of the omelette as their proteins coagulate when heated.
Cream
Adds moisture and richness, keeping the eggs tender rather than dry.
Deviled ham
Adds savoury, salty flavour that runs through the whole omelette.
Shredded cheese
Melts into the eggs, adding fat, flavour and a rich, stringy texture.
Beer
Adds liquid that keeps the eggs moist and loosens the mixture.

The step that matters

Stir in the egg, cream, and ham mixture. Egg proteins set with heat, so over-high heat or overstirring can make the eggs tough, dry and grainy. Gentle heat and stirring keep the curds soft and the texture even.

“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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