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Egg Vermicelli

Egg vermicelli is a dish of boiled eggs served with a creamy sauce over toast.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 6 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 ↓

Egg Vermicelli

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the eggs

  1. Boil the eggs in water for 20 minutes.

  2. Transfer the eggs to cold water.

  3. Peel the eggs.

  4. Chop the egg whites finely.

  5. Sieve the yolks.

Make the sauce

  1. In a double boiler, heat the milk.

  2. Rub the butter and corn starch together.

  3. Add the mixture to the boiling milk.

  4. Stir until creamy.

  5. Add the egg whites, salt, and pepper.

Assemble and serve

  1. Wet the edges of the toast.

  2. Lightly butter the toast.

  3. Place the toast on a warm dish.

  4. Cover the toast with the sauce.

  5. Evenly distribute the sauce.

  6. Sprinkle the strained yolks on top.

  7. Serve immediately with a little salt and pepper.

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. Corn + milktop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together6,955 recipes

    Shared aroma: hexanal (green, grassy).

  3. Corn + peppertop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together5,324 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).

  4. Corn + buttertop 14% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together7,345 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2,3-pentanedione (butter, sweet).

  5. Egg + buttertop 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

Eggs
Egg whites add body and substance to the sauce, while sieved yolks give a fine, crumbly topping.
Corn starch
Thickens the hot milk into a smooth, creamy sauce as its starch gelatinises.
Milk
Forms the liquid base of the sauce, providing moisture and a creamy texture.
Butter
Adds richness and fat, giving the sauce and toast a smooth mouthfeel.
Toast
Provides a crisp, absorbent base that holds the warm sauce.

The step that matters

Stir the sauce until creamy. Corn starch must be heated in the milk to swell and thicken; stirring keeps it smooth and prevents lumps from forming as it gelatinises.

“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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