Skip to main content
Main

Scrambled Eggs

Scrambled eggs are beaten eggs cooked with milk, salt, pepper, and butter.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 5 ingredients
Jump to recipe ↓

Why it works: Milk and butter are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 7% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 81,283 recipes. Both carry (z)-4-heptenal, which smells biscuit, cream. The science ↓

Scrambled Eggs

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the eggs

  1. Beat the eggs lightly to mix them.

  2. Add milk (or milk and cream), salt, and pepper to the eggs.

Cook

  1. In a saucepan, melt the butter over medium heat.

  2. When the butter bubbles, add the egg mixture.

  3. Stir constantly until the eggs are just set but still slightly soft.

  4. Optional: Mix in chopped meats, chives, cooked tomato, or parsley for added flavor.

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. Milk + buttertop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together81,283 recipes

    Shared aroma: (z)-4-heptenal (biscuit, cream).

  2. Egg + buttertop 17% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together118,967 recipes

    Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).

  3. Egg + milktop 18% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together88,785 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).

  4. Pepper + buttertop 21% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together85,593 recipes

    Shared aroma: trans-2-nonenal (cardboard, fatty).

  5. Milk + peppertop 22% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together26,984 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl 2-methylbutyrate (fruity, apple).

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

What each ingredient does

Eggs
Set into soft curds that give the scrambled eggs their structure.
Milk
Adds moisture and tenderness, keeping the eggs softer as they set.
Butter
Adds fat and richness, and keeps the eggs from sticking to the pan.

The step that matters

Stirring constantly and removing at just set. Eggs keep cooking from residual heat after leaving the pan. Stirring keeps curds small and tender, and pulling them while still slightly soft prevents them from becoming dry and rubbery.

“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.

More scrambled eggs recipes

Cheese 16on Toast 16with Tomatoes 16with Ham 11with Asparagus 10with Mushrooms 10 See all 310 →

You might also like

Tomato SoupTomato Soup526 recipesBrown BreadBrown Bread461 recipesMutton BrothMutton Broth292 recipesYorkshire PuddingYorkshire Pudding264 recipes