Why it works: Olive and mushroom are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 7% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 4,571 recipes. Both carry trans,trans-2,4-nonadienal, which smells fatty, green. The science ↓
Fried Eggs
Ingredients
Directions
Fry the eggs
Heat olive oil in a pan over medium heat.
Fry the eggs until cooked to your liking.
Transfer the eggs to a hot dish.
Make the mushroom sauce
Add mushrooms, minced chili, and clear stock to the same pan.
Cook until the mushrooms are done.
Pour the mushroom mixture around the eggs before serving.
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.
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Olive + mushroomtop 7% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together4,571 recipes
Shared aroma: trans,trans-2,4-nonadienal (fatty, green).
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Egg + mushroomtop 21% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together5,987 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).
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Egg + olivetop 31% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together15,340 recipes
Shared aroma: 2,4-decadienal (seaweed).
Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs
What each ingredient does
- Eggs
- Form the main dish; their proteins set when fried, giving structure to the plate.
- Olive oil
- Conducts heat evenly and keeps the eggs from sticking to the pan.
- Mushrooms
- Release moisture and savory flavor as they cook, adding body to the sauce.
- Clear stock
- Provides liquid that carries flavor and moisture into the mushroom mixture.
The step that matters
Fry the eggs until cooked to your liking. Egg whites set at moderate heat while yolks thicken more slowly. Too much heat makes the whites tough and brown at the edges, and too little leaves them runny, so the pan temperature and timing decide the texture.
“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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