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Swiss Eggs

A baked dish of eggs topped with cheese and cream, served with tomato sauce.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 7 ingredients
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Why it works: Olive and tomato are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 15,539 recipes. Both carry 3-hexenal, which smells apple, fruity. The science ↓

Swiss Eggs

Oven, in the book's wordsA moderate oven

Ingredients

Directions

The book says “a moderate oven”. The 350°F (175°C) in the steps is the modern equivalent, not the book's own figure.

Prepare

  1. Preheat the oven to 350°F (175°C).

  2. Cover the bottom of an open baking dish with a little olive oil.

  3. Sprinkle grated cheese over the oil.

Assemble

  1. Carefully drop the eggs onto the cheese without breaking the yolks.

  2. Season the eggs with a pinch of coarse sea salt.

  3. Pour the cream over the eggs.

  4. Sprinkle additional grated cheese on top.

Bake and serve

  1. Bake in the oven for about 15 minutes.

  2. Serve with tomato sauce.

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. Olive + tomatotop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together15,539 recipes

    Shared aroma: 3-hexenal (apple, fruity).

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

    Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).

  3. Olive + cheesetop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together3,802 recipes

    Shared aroma: methyl 2-methylbutyrate (apple, fatty).

  4. Cheese + tomatotop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together2,896 recipes

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

  5. Tomato + saucetop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together5,469 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).

Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs

What each ingredient does

Eggs
Set to a soft, tender custard-like texture while the yolks stay intact.
Grated cheese
Forms a melted, browned layer that holds the eggs and adds savoury flavour.
Cream
Adds moisture and richness so the eggs bake softer and less dry.
Olive oil
Coats the dish so the cheese and eggs do not stick and adds fat for flavour.

The step that matters

Dropping the eggs without breaking the yolks. Eggs set in the oven around the yolk, so a broken yolk spreads and cooks unevenly. Gently placing the eggs on the cheese keeps each yolk whole and the whites contained.

Swap the tomato

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (olive, cheese, egg, cream, sauce):

  1. Mustardfits about as well
  2. Tomatothe original
  3. Capsicumfits about as well
  4. Spinachfits about as well

Fit is the average pairing score against olive, cheese, egg, cream, sauce. 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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