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Stirred Eggs

Stirred eggs cooked in gravy or consommé, served over hot buttered toast with parsley.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 5 ingredients
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Why it works: Butter and parsley are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 15% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 28,563 recipes. Both carry trans-2-hexenal, which smells green, leafy. The science ↓

Stirred Eggs

Ingredients

Directions

Make the sauce

  1. Heat the gravy or consommé in a saucepan.

  2. Melt the butter in the hot liquid.

Cook the eggs

  1. Beat the eggs together until mixed, then stir into the saucepan.

  2. Cook for three minutes, stirring continuously.

Serve

  1. Serve over hot buttered toast and sprinkle with minced parsley.

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 + parsleytop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together28,563 recipes

    Shared aroma: trans-2-hexenal (green, leafy).

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

    Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).

  3. Egg + parsleytop 21% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together18,765 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

Eggs
Set into soft curds that thicken the warm liquid and give the dish its body.
Butter
Adds fat for richness and a smooth, silky mouthfeel.
Rich gravy or consommé
Provides the savory liquid base that the eggs cook into.

The step that matters

Stirring continuously while the eggs cook. Egg proteins set as they heat, so stirring keeps the eggs moving and forms fine, tender curds. If left still, the eggs can overcook at the bottom of the pan and turn rubbery or grainy.

Swap the parsley

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (butter, egg):

  1. Nutmegfits about as well
  2. Parsleythe original
  3. Capersfits about as well
  4. Tarragonfits less well

Fit is the average pairing score against butter, egg. 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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