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Consomme with Poached Eggs

A clear consommé served with poached eggs, finished with coarse black pepper.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 6 ingredients
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Why it works: Vinegar and pepper are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 14% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 27,814 recipes. Both carry 4'-methylacetophenone, which smells bitter almond. The science ↓

Consomme with Poached Eggs

Ingredients

Directions

Poach the eggs

  1. Combine water, salt, and vinegar in a small pan and bring to a boil.

  2. Break eggs into a saucer and gently slip them into the boiling water.

  3. Simmer until the eggs are firm, then remove them with a perforated skimmer and place them in a pan of cold water.

Serve

  1. Place the poached eggs in a tureen and pour hot broth over them.

  2. Just before serving, add a pinch or two of coarse black pepper.

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. Vinegar + peppertop 14% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together27,814 recipes

    Shared aroma: 4'-methylacetophenone (bitter almond).

  2. Chicken + peppertop 16% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together19,958 recipes

    Shared aroma: piperonal (bitter, coconut).

  3. Vinegar + chickentop 27% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together3,344 recipes

    Shared aroma: sotolon (curry, maple).

  4. Egg + chickentop 30% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together8,991 recipes

    Shared aroma: (e,e)-2,4-decadienal (fatty, deep fried).

  5. Vinegar + eggtop 33% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together12,922 recipes

    Shared aroma: acetic acid (sour, vinegar).

Vinegar and egg barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 12,922 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 firm, tender whites and form the body of the dish.
Vinegar
Helps the egg whites coagulate neatly in the simmering water.
Broth
Provides the hot liquid and savory flavor that fills the tureen.

The step that matters

Simmer until the eggs are firm. Simmering only until the whites set keeps the yolks soft and the whites tender; overcooking makes the whites rubbery and dries the yolks.

“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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