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Fried Eggs a LA Suisse

A fried egg mixture of Gruyère cheese, butter, herbs, and spices cooked in clarified butter.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 9 ingredients
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Why it works: Parsley and tarragon match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 1,563 recipes. Both carry estragole, which smells anise, licorice. The science ↓

Fried Eggs a LA Suisse

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. Break the eggs into a bowl and mix well.

  2. Add the grated Gruyère cheese, melted butter, chopped chives, parsley, and tarragon.

  3. Season with pepper and coarse sea salt.

Fry and serve

  1. Drop spoonfuls of the mixture into hot clarified butter.

  2. Fry until light brown, then dish up and serve hot.

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

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

  2. Chive + tarragontop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together589 recipes

    Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).

  3. Parsley + peppertop 2% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together34,122 recipes

    Shared aroma: 4'-methylacetophenone (bitter almond).

  4. Chive + parsleytop 3% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together2,150 recipes

    Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).

  5. Tarragon + peppertop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together2,399 recipes

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

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

What each ingredient does

Eggs
Set when heated, binding the mixture into soft, cohesive fried pieces.
Gruyère cheese
Melts and browns in the hot fat, adding richness and a savoury, nutty flavour.
Melted butter
Adds fat and richness, contributing moisture and a smoother texture to the mixture.
Chives, parsley and tarragon
Contribute fresh herbal aroma and flavour that brightens the rich eggs and cheese.

The step that matters

Fry until light brown. Frying over hot clarified butter sets the egg quickly and browns the cheese. Too little heat leaves the mixture pale and greasy, while overcooking makes it dry and rubbery, so the spoonfuls should be removed once lightly browned.

Swap the chive

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (egg, gruyere cheese, butter, parsley, tarragon, pepper):

  1. Shallotfits about as well
  2. Chivethe original
  3. Potatofits less well
  4. Mustardfits less well

Fit is the average pairing score against egg, gruyere cheese, butter, parsley, tarragon, pepper. 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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