Why it works: Bread and butter are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 7% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 27,232 recipes. Both carry delta-decalactone, which smells sweet, creamy. The science ↓
Egg Gems
Ingredients
Directions
The book gives no oven temperature. The 350°F (175°C) in the steps was added when the recipe was transcribed, as a starting point.
Prepare
Mix the chopped meat and bread crumbs in a bowl.
Add melted butter, salt, pepper, and enough milk to bind the mixture.
Grease gem pans and fill them with the mixture.
Top and bake
Carefully break an egg on top of each filled pan.
Season with salt and pepper, then sprinkle with cracker crumbs.
Bake at 350°F (175°C) for 15 minutes.
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.
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Bread + buttertop 7% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together27,232 recipes
Shared aroma: delta-decalactone (sweet, creamy).
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Butter + milktop 7% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together81,283 recipes
Shared aroma: (z)-4-heptenal (biscuit, cream).
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Bread + milktop 11% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together11,466 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-undecenal (sweet).
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Bread + eggtop 13% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together22,662 recipes
Shared aroma: (e)-2-octenal (fatty, green).
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Meat + breadtop 14% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together2,924 recipes
Shared aroma: 2,4-decadienal (seaweed).
Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs
What each ingredient does
- Chopped cold meat
- Provides the main body and savory flavor of each gem.
- Bread crumbs
- Absorb moisture and help the meat mixture hold together.
- Eggs
- Set during baking to form a firm, sliceable topping over the filling.
- Melted butter
- Adds fat for richer flavor and a softer texture.
- Milk
- Moistens the mixture so the crumbs bind it together.
The step that matters
Breaking the egg on top of the filled pan. The egg must sit neatly on the filling without breaking the yolk, since the yolk and white set in the oven and the topping's appearance depends on it staying intact.
“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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