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Scrambled Eggs

Scrambled eggs served on toast with chopped ham, seasoned with salt and pepper, and cooked in butter.

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 chopped 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. Serve immediately on the toast.

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 that give the scrambled eggs their body and texture.
Milk
Adds moisture and keeps the eggs tender and creamy as they set.
Butter
Adds richness and helps keep the eggs from sticking to the hot pan.
Ham
Adds savory flavor and a salty, meaty bite to the toast.

The step that matters

Stirring until slightly thickened. Eggs keep cooking from residual heat after leaving the pan, so removing them while still slightly glossy prevents them from becoming 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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