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Ramekins of Eggs with Sweetbreads or Chicken

A baked custard of eggs, sweetbreads or chicken, and a roux-based sauce.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 8 ingredients
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Why it works: Butter and milk 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 ↓

Ramekins of Eggs with Sweetbreads or Chicken

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. The book gives no cooking times either; the times in the steps were added in transcription, so check for doneness rather than trusting the clock.

Make the sauce

  1. Preheat the oven to 350°F (175°C).

  2. In a saucepan, melt the butter, then stir in the flour, salt, and pepper.

  3. Gradually add the milk or cream, stirring until the sauce thickens.

Assemble

  1. Mix the chicken or sweetbreads into half of the sauce.

  2. Divide the mixture among buttered ramekins.

  3. Crack an egg into each ramekin over the mixture.

Bake and serve

  1. Place the ramekins in a baking dish filled with hot water.

  2. Bake until the eggs are set, about 15-20 minutes.

  3. Reheat the remaining sauce and pour it over the eggs before serving.

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 + milktop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together81,283 recipes

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

  2. Butter + flourtop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together124,287 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  3. Milk + chickentop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together4,389 recipes

    Shared aroma: 1-hexanal (fruit).

  4. Flour + milktop 14% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together78,219 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  5. Butter + chickentop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together13,902 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-furfurylthiol (coffee, roasted).

Butter and flour barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 124,287 recipes: they work on texture and structure more than aroma.

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

What each ingredient does

Eggs
Set into a soft, custard-like texture when baked, holding the dish together.
Butter
Enriches the sauce and carries flavour, while helping the flour form a smooth base.
Flour
Thickens the milk or cream into a sauce that gives the dish body.
Milk or cream
Forms the liquid base of the sauce, adding moisture and richness.
Chicken or sweetbreads
Provides the main savoury filling, adding texture and meaty flavour.

The step that matters

Baking the eggs until set. Eggs continue to firm as they cool, so pulling them too late can leave them overcooked and rubbery, while too early leaves the whites runny. The hot water bath moderates the heat so the eggs cook gently.

“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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