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Caracas Eggs

A savory dish of eggs, cheese, chipped beef, and tomato juice cooked together.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 10 ingredients
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Why it works: Tomato and pepper are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 7% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 17,923 recipes. Both carry 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine, which smells earthy, pea. The science ↓

Caracas Eggs

Ingredients

Directions

Make the sauce

  1. Melt the butter in a chafing dish.

  2. Add salt, pepper, mustard, and paprika.

  3. Stir in the cheese cut into small pieces and melt.

  4. Add the tomato juice and chipped beef.

  5. Adjust seasoning if desired.

Finish and serve

  1. Stir in the beaten eggs.

  2. Serve as soon as 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. Tomato + peppertop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together17,923 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).

  2. Beef + tomatotop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together5,448 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).

  3. Butter + cheesetop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together7,962 recipes

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

  4. Mustard + peppertop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together15,430 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).

  5. Beef + peppertop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together18,971 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).

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

What each ingredient does

Cheese
Melts into the sauce to give it body and a rich, creamy texture.
Eggs
Set into the warm sauce to thicken it and give it a soft, custardy texture.
Chipped beef
Adds savory, salty meat flavor and chewy texture to the sauce.
Tomato juice
Adds liquid and acidity that balance the rich cheese and mustard.
Mustard
Adds sharp, pungent flavor that cuts through the richness of the cheese.

The step that matters

Serve as soon as the eggs are set. Eggs keep cooking from residual heat, so overcooking turns them rubbery and grainy and makes the sauce curdle. Removing the dish from heat once the eggs have just set keeps the texture smooth.

Swap the mustard

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (butter, cheese, beef, tomato, egg, pepper, sauce):

  1. Capsicumfits better
  2. Potatofits better
  3. Asparagusfits about as well
  4. Mustardthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against butter, cheese, beef, tomato, egg, pepper, sauce. 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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