Why it works: Egg and butter are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 17% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 118,967 recipes. Both carry decanal, which smells soap, orange peel. The science ↓
Poached Eggs
Ingredients
Directions
Prepare
Prepare a slice of buttered toast for each egg.
In a pan, bring enough water to a boil and add 2 teaspoons of salt.
Poach
Crack each egg into a saucer, then carefully slip it into the boiling water.
If necessary, pour water over the yolk with a spoon to help it cook.
Remove the eggs from the water with a skimmer, drain, and trim off rough edges.
Serve
Place each poached egg on a slice of toast and season with salt, pepper, and butter.
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.
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Egg + buttertop 17% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together118,967 recipes
Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).
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Butter + peppertop 21% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together85,593 recipes
Shared aroma: trans-2-nonenal (cardboard, fatty).
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Egg + peppertop 33% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together50,580 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).
Egg and pepper barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 50,580 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
- The main ingredient; the white sets around the yolk during poaching, holding the egg's shape.
- Butter
- Adds richness and flavour to the buttered toast and the finished egg.
- Toast slices
- Provide a firm base that holds the poached egg and soaks up its yolk.
The step that matters
Slipping the egg into the water. Eggs that are cracked into water directly can spread and form ragged strands. Cracking each egg into a saucer first and sliding it gently into barely simmering water lets the white hold together and cook into a compact shape.
“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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