Name: Scalloped Eggs
Ingredients: 1 cup thick drawn-butter gravy; 12 hard-boiled eggs; Butter for greasing; Fine bread crumbs; Milk or broth (for moistening); 2 beaten eggs; Cold meat or fowl, minced fine

Why it works: Butter and bread 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 ↓

Scalloped Eggs

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

Prepare a cup of thick drawn-butter gravy and hard-boil the eggs.
Butter a pudding dish and layer fine bread crumbs moistened with milk or broth.
Mix two beaten eggs into the drawn butter.

Assemble and bake

Slice the boiled eggs, dip each slice in gravy, and layer them on the bread crumbs.
Sprinkle minced cold meat or fowl over the layers.
Repeat the layers and top with sifted bread crumbs.
Heat through in a moderate oven at 350°F (175°C).

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.

Butter + breadtop 7% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together27,232 recipes

Shared aroma: delta-decalactone (sweet, creamy).
Butter + milktop 7% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together81,283 recipes

Shared aroma: (z)-4-heptenal (biscuit, cream).
Bread + milktop 11% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together11,466 recipes

Shared aroma: 2-undecenal (sweet).
Egg + breadtop 13% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together22,662 recipes

Shared aroma: (e)-2-octenal (fatty, green).
Bread + meattop 14% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked 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

Hard-boiled eggs: Form the sliced layers that give the dish its body and set structure.
Two beaten eggs: Bind the drawn butter and help the dish set when heated.
Drawn-butter gravy: Adds moisture and richness that coat the egg slices and keep them from drying.
Fine bread crumbs: Absorb liquid and form the soft, tender layers between the eggs.
Cold meat or fowl: Adds savory flavor and protein to the layers.

“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.