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Eggs with Spinach

Baked eggs topped with spinach and cream sauce, optionally with asparagus, chicken, or mushrooms.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 7 ingredients
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Why it works: Spinach and asparagus match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 274 recipes. Both carry 2-methoxy-4-vinylphenol, which smells clove, smoky. The science ↓

Eggs with Spinach

Oven, in the book's wordsA hot oven

Ingredients

Directions

The book says “a hot oven”. The 400°F (200°C) in the steps is the modern equivalent, not the book's own figure.

Prepare

  1. Butter individual shirred egg dishes.

  2. Cover the bottom with a layer of well-seasoned, chopped spinach.

  3. Break one or two eggs into each dish.

Bake and serve

  1. Cover the eggs with well-seasoned cream sauce.

  2. Bake in a hot oven at 400°F (200°C) until the eggs are set.

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. Spinach + asparagustop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together274 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-methoxy-4-vinylphenol (clove, smoky).

  2. Chicken + mushroomtop 4% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together4,172 recipes

    Shared aroma: 1-butyl acetate (fruity, banana).

  3. Spinach + mushroomtop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together778 recipes

    Shared aroma: trans-2-decenal (waxy, orange).

  4. Asparagus + mushroomtop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together400 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2,4-nonadienal (fatty, green).

  5. Butter + mushroomtop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together12,525 recipes

    Shared aroma: trans-2-decenal (waxy, orange).

Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs

What each ingredient does

Eggs
Set to a tender custard-like texture as they cook, forming the body of the dish.
Chopped spinach
Adds moisture and a mild, earthy flavour under the eggs.
Cream sauce
Adds richness and moisture, keeping the eggs soft and creamy as they bake.

The step that matters

Baking until the eggs are set. Egg proteins set at a moderate heat and turn rubbery if overcooked. Pull the dish once the whites are opaque and the yolks still look soft, since they keep cooking after leaving the oven.

Swap the asparagus

The recipe marks asparagus as optional. How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (butter, spinach, egg, cream, sauce, chicken, mushroom):

  1. Asparagusthe original
  2. Shallotfits about as well
  3. Chivefits about as well
  4. Potatofits about as well

Fit is the average pairing score against butter, spinach, egg, cream, sauce, chicken, mushroom. 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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