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Creamed Eggs

A savory dish of eggs cooked in butter, flour, milk, and cheese, served over buttered toast.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 10 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 ↓

Creamed Eggs

Ingredients

Directions

Make the sauce

  1. In a bowl, rub together the butter and flour.

  2. Add salt, red pepper, and anchovy or Worcestershire sauce.

  3. Slowly stir in milk until dissolved, then bring to a boil for a few minutes.

Cook the eggs and serve

  1. In a chafing dish, heat a piece of butter the size of a walnut until very hot.

  2. Beat the eggs lightly and mix in the cream and a little salt.

  3. Pour the egg mixture into the hot butter and stir until thickened.

  4. Stir in the grated cheese and serve over squares of buttered 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. Butter + milktop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together81,283 recipes

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

  2. Butter + creamtop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together41,516 recipes

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

  3. Butter + cheesetop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together7,962 recipes

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

  4. Milk + cheesetop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together4,426 recipes

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

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

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

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
Coagulate when stirred with heat, setting into a soft, creamy texture.
Flour
Thickens the butter and milk into a smooth sauce that holds the dish together.
Butter
Carries flavor and keeps the eggs from sticking while they cook.
Cream
Adds richness and moisture, keeping the eggs tender rather than dry.
Grated cheese
Adds savory flavor and a little fat to the finished dish.

The step that matters

Pour the egg mixture into the hot butter and stir until thickened. Egg proteins set quickly with heat and can turn grainy or rubbery if overcooked, so stir constantly over steady heat and remove them while still soft and creamy.

“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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