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Scrambled Eggs

Scrambled eggs served on toasted bread with ham, seasoned with salt and pepper.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
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Why it works: Milk and butter are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 7% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 81,283 recipes. Both carry (z)-4-heptenal, which smells biscuit, cream. The science ↓

Scrambled Eggs

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. Spread the toast with a thin layer of jotted ham.

  2. Beat the eggs slightly with a fork and season with salt and pepper.

  3. Add the milk and mix well.

Cook and serve

  1. Turn the mixture into a hot buttered chafing-pan.

  2. Stir with a fork until the eggs are slightly thickened.

  3. Turn the scrambled eggs onto the toast and serve quickly.

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. Milk + buttertop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together81,283 recipes

    Shared aroma: (z)-4-heptenal (biscuit, cream).

  2. Ham + buttertop 16% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together5,475 recipes

    Shared aroma: trans-2-decenal (waxy, orange).

  3. Ham + eggtop 17% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together4,526 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2,4-decadienal (seaweed).

  4. Egg + buttertop 17% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together118,967 recipes

    Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).

  5. Egg + milktop 18% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together88,785 recipes

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

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

What each ingredient does

Eggs
Set into soft curds as they cook, giving the dish its main structure and texture.
Milk
Adds moisture and makes the eggs softer and creamier as they set.
Butter
Greases the chafing-pan so the eggs release cleanly and do not stick.

The step that matters

Stir until the eggs are slightly thickened. Eggs set quickly from the edges inward. Removing them while still slightly glossy and soft lets residual heat finish cooking them, so they stay tender rather than dry and rubbery.

“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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