Name: Eggs, Au Gratin, for Lent
Ingredients: 4 hard-boiled eggs; 1 tablespoon butter; ½ cup sweet milk; grated cheese

Why it works: Butter and milk are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 7% of all ingredient pairs, and 81,283 recipes mention both. Both carry (z)-4-heptenal, which smells biscuit, cream. The science ↓

Eggs, Au Gratin, for Lent

Ingredients

4 hard-boiled eggs
1 tablespoon butter
½ cup sweet milk
grated cheese

Directions

Peel and slice the hard-boiled eggs.
Arrange the slices in a deep dish in close circular rows.
In a saucepan, melt the butter.
Add the yolks of the eggs and sweet milk to the melted butter, stirring to combine.
Pour the sauce over the arranged egg slices and sprinkle with grated cheese.

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.

Butter + milktop 7% of all pairs

Aroma overlapmoderate

Mentioned together81,283 recipes

Shared aroma: (z)-4-heptenal (biscuit, cream).
Butter + cheesetop 8% of all pairs

Aroma overlapmoderate

Mentioned together7,962 recipes

Shared aroma: delta-dodecalactone (sweet, creamy).
Milk + cheesetop 10% of all pairs

Aroma overlapmoderate

Mentioned together4,426 recipes

Shared aroma: delta-dodecalactone (sweet, creamy).
Egg + buttertop 17% of all pairs

Aroma overlapmoderate

Mentioned together118,967 recipes

Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).
Egg + milktop 18% of all pairs

Aroma overlapmoderate

Mentioned together88,785 recipes

Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).