Skip to main content
Main

Scalloped Eggs

Layered boiled egg slices with butter gravy, bread crumbs, and minced cold meat, baked until golden.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 5 ingredients
Jump to recipe ↓

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

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. Prepare a cup of thick drawn butter gravy.

  2. Butter a pudding dish and layer it with fine bread crumbs moistened with milk or broth.

  3. Add the beaten eggs to the drawn butter.

Assemble and bake

  1. Slice the boiled eggs, dip each slice in gravy, and layer them on the bread crumbs.

  2. Sprinkle the layers with minced cold meat or fowl.

  3. Repeat the layers and top with sifted bread crumbs.

  4. Heat well 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.

  1. Butter + breadtop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together27,232 recipes

    Shared aroma: delta-decalactone (sweet, creamy).

  2. Egg + breadtop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together22,662 recipes

    Shared aroma: (e)-2-octenal (fatty, green).

  3. Bread + meattop 14% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together2,924 recipes

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

  4. Butter + meattop 16% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together7,594 recipes

    Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).

  5. Butter + eggtop 17% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together118,967 recipes

    Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).

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

What each ingredient does

Boiled eggs
Provide the main body and set firmly when heated, giving the dish its structure.
Beaten eggs
Enrich the drawn butter gravy and help it set and bind the layers as it heats.
Fine bread crumbs
Absorb the moistened gravy and liquid, forming a soft, tender base for the layers.
Drawn butter gravy
Adds moisture and richness, keeping the layers from drying out during baking.
Cold meat or fowl
Adds savory flavor and substance between the egg layers.

The step that matters

Heat well through in a moderate oven. Beaten eggs must be fully heated to set and bind the gravy. Underbaking leaves the dish runny in the middle, while gentle moderate heat helps the custard-like layers cook evenly without curdling or drying out.

“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.

You might also like

Brown BreadBrown Bread461 recipesWhite BreadWhite Bread80 recipesBread OmeletteBread Omelette60 recipesMeat CroquettesMeat Croquettes52 recipes