Why it works: Egg and milk are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 18% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 88,785 recipes. Both carry 2-nonenal, which smells fatty, green. The science ↓
Egg and Bacon Pie, to Eat Cold
Ingredients
Directions
Prepare
Soak the bacon in water overnight to remove excess salt.
Arrange the bacon in the dish along the edge.
Assemble and bake
Beat the eggs with the milk and a pinch of pepper.
Pour the egg mixture over the bacon.
Cover with puff pastry and bake until set.
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 + milktop 18% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together88,785 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).
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Milk + peppertop 22% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together26,984 recipes
Shared aroma: ethyl 2-methylbutyrate (fruity, apple).
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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
- Thin slices of bacon
- Provides salty, smoky meat flavour that seasons the filling.
- 6 eggs
- Set when baked, giving the filling its firm, custard-like structure.
- Milk
- Adds moisture and softness to the egg mixture, keeping it tender as it sets.
- Puff pastry
- Forms the flaky crust that covers and encloses the filling.
The step that matters
Bake until set. Eggs thicken as their proteins coagulate with heat. Removing the pie too early leaves a runny centre, while overbaking makes the custard rubbery and weeping.
“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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