Skip to main content
Main

Poached Eggs, Portuguese Style

A dish of tomatoes stuffed with a breadcrumb and herb mixture, topped with poached eggs.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 15 ingredients
Jump to recipe ↓

Why it works: Shallot and tarragon match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 602 recipes. Both carry eucalyptol, which smells eucalyptus, herbal. The science ↓

Poached Eggs, Portuguese Style

Ingredients

Directions

The book gives no oven temperature. The 350°F (175°C) in the steps was added when the recipe was transcribed, as a starting point.

Prepare the tomatoes

  1. Preheat the oven to 350°F (175°C).

  2. Cut the tomatoes in half crossways and remove the seeds.

  3. Place the tomato halves in a buttered sauté pan and bake for a few minutes to set.

Make the stuffing

  1. In a skillet, fry the minced shallots in butter until soft.

  2. Add the bread crumbs, parsley, tarragon, and chopped beef marrow to the skillet.

  3. Bind the mixture with the egg yolk and season with salt, pepper, and nutmeg.

Stuff, bake and serve

  1. Stuff the tomatoes with the mixture and return them to the oven to brown.

  2. Toast the bread slices and place each stuffed tomato on a slice.

  3. Poach the eggs, place one on top of each stuffed tomato, garnish with parsley, and serve on a folded napkin.

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. Shallot + tarragontop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together602 recipes

    Shared aroma: eucalyptol (eucalyptus, herbal).

  2. Parsley + tarragontop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together1,563 recipes

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

  3. Shallot + parsleytop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together3,737 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2,4-decadienal (seaweed).

  4. Tomato + tarragontop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together391 recipes

    Shared aroma: beta-phellandrene (minty, terpene).

  5. Butter + breadtop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together27,232 recipes

    Shared aroma: delta-decalactone (sweet, creamy).

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

What each ingredient does

Eggs
Poached eggs provide a rich, set topping that adds creamy texture and substance to the dish.
Tomatoes
Hollowed halves hold the stuffing and add moisture and acidity as they bake.
Bread crumbs
Absorb moisture from the stuffing and help it hold together in the tomato halves.
Egg yolk
Binds the stuffing mixture so it holds its shape when baked.
Shallots
Softened in butter, they add mild sweetness and aromatic depth to the stuffing.
Beef marrow
Adds richness and fat to the stuffing, giving it a softer, savoury texture.

The step that matters

Poaching the eggs. Eggs cooked in water that is too hot or boiling can break apart and turn rubbery. Gentle simmering keeps the whites together and the yolks soft.

Swap the tomato

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (butter, shallot, bread, parsley, tarragon, beef, egg):

  1. Chivefits better
  2. Leekfits better
  3. Asparagusfits better
  4. Tomatothe original

Fit is the average pairing score against butter, shallot, bread, parsley, tarragon, beef, egg. 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.

You might also like

Tomato SoupTomato Soup526 recipesBrown BreadBrown Bread461 recipesRoast BeefRoast Beef211 recipesBeef LoafBeef Loaf175 recipes