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Nuns' Toast

Eggs in a butter‑onion sauce served over hot buttered toast.

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 ↓

Nuns' Toast

Ingredients

Directions

Make the onion sauce

  1. In a saucepan, melt the butter over medium heat until bubbling.

  2. Add the chopped onion and cook until soft but not colored.

  3. Stir in the flour and cook for a minute.

  4. Gradually add the milk, stirring until smooth.

Finish and serve

  1. Slice the hard-boiled eggs.

  2. Add the egg slices and heat through.

  3. Season with pepper and salt.

  4. Pour the sauce over the hot 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. Onion + peppertop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together68,474 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).

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

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

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

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  5. Butter + oniontop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together42,912 recipes

    Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).

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

Hard-boiled eggs
Provide the main filling, adding protein and a soft, firm texture to the dish.
Butter
Adds richness and fat, and forms the base for cooking the onion and flour.
Onion
Adds savory flavor and sweetness as it softens in the butter.
Flour
Thickens the milk into a smooth, creamy sauce.
Milk
Forms the liquid of the sauce, giving it a creamy, smooth body when thickened.

The step that matters

Stirring in the milk gradually. Adding milk slowly while stirring lets the flour starch disperse evenly, so the sauce thickens smooth instead of forming lumps.

Swap the onion

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

  1. Capsicumfits better
  2. Potatofits better
  3. Asparagusfits better
  4. Onionthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against egg, butter, flour, milk, pepper. 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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