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Poached Eggs Victoria

Poached eggs served on tartlet crusts topped with lobster, truffles, and white sauce.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 5 ingredients
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Why it works: Spiny lobster and sauce share more aroma than cooks usually use. They rank in the top 9% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 3 recipes. Both carry ethanol, which smells alcoholic, ethereal. The science ↓

Poached Eggs Victoria

Oven, in the book's wordsA fierce oven

Ingredients

Directions

The book says “a fierce oven”. The 400°F (200°C) in the steps is the modern equivalent, not the book's own figure.

Assemble

  1. Garnish tartlet crusts with a mixture of lobster meat, truffles, and white sauce.

  2. Coat each egg with white sauce and place on the tartlets.

Bake

  1. Bake in a 400°F (200°C) oven until glazed.

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. Spiny lobster + saucetop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together3 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).

  2. Meat + truffletop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together527 recipes

    Shared aroma: 1-octen-3-one (mushroom, metallic).

  3. Truffle + eggtop 18% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,604 recipes

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

  4. Meat + saucetop 22% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together2,167 recipes
  5. Meat + eggtop 22% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together6,432 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

Egg
Sets as it bakes, forming the tender, rounded centre of each tartlet.
White sauce
Adds moisture and richness, and coats the egg so it browns and glazes.
Spiny lobster meat
Adds sweet, rich seafood flavour and a tender texture.
Truffles
Contributes a strong earthy aroma that defines the dish.

The step that matters

Bake until glazed. Egg proteins set at moderate heat, so the whites firm while the yolk stays soft. Overbaking at 400°F turns the yolk firm and dry and can scorch the white sauce before the egg is ready.

“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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