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Eggs with Cheese Sauce

Hard-boiled eggs served in a creamy cheese sauce with Parmesan and Worcestershire.

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 ↓

Eggs with Cheese Sauce

Ingredients

Directions

Cook the eggs

  1. Cook the eggs in water just below boiling for 20 minutes.

Make the cheese sauce

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

  2. Stir in the flour and gradually add the milk, cooking until smooth and thick.

  3. Add onion juice, salt, celery salt, Worcestershire sauce, and paprika; stir well.

  4. Mix in the grated Parmesan cheese until melted.

Combine and serve

  1. Cut the cooked eggs in half lengthwise and add them to the sauce.

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. Celery + oniontop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together18,518 recipes

    Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).

  3. Butter + parmesan cheesetop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together4,163 recipes

    Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).

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

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  5. Flour + milktop 14% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together78,219 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
Provide the main protein and body of the dish, setting firm when cooked.
Butter
Adds richness and fat that carries flavor in the sauce.
Flour
Thickens the milk into a smooth, stable sauce as it cooks.
Whole milk
Forms the liquid base of the sauce, adding creaminess and body.
Parmesan cheese
Adds savory, salty flavor and helps the sauce turn rich and cohesive.

The step that matters

Add the Parmesan cheese gently. Cheese proteins can become tight and grainy if overheated, so it should be stirred in over low heat until just melted into the sauce.

Swap the celery

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (egg, butter, flour, milk, sauce, parmesan cheese, onion):

  1. Capersfits better
  2. Nutmegfits better
  3. Garlicfits about as well
  4. Celerythe original

Fit is the average pairing score against egg, butter, flour, milk, sauce, parmesan cheese, onion. 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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