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Eggs in Cases

Eggs are baked in shrimp paste cases with breadcrumbs, parsley, and seasonings, served with tomato sauce or shrimp puree.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 9 ingredients
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Why it works: Parsley and pepper match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 2% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 34,122 recipes. Both carry 4'-methylacetophenone, which smells bitter almond. The science ↓

Eggs in Cases

Oven, in the book's wordsA moderate oven

Ingredients

Directions

The book says “a moderate oven”. The 350°F (175°C) in the steps is the modern equivalent, not the book's own figure.

Prepare the filling

  1. In a mortar, combine shrimp and butter until it forms a pliant paste.

  2. Mix in soaked bread crumbs, parsley, pepper, and salt.

Fill the cases

  1. Butter small china cases and line the bottom and sides with the shrimp mixture, leaving a hollow in the center for the egg.

  2. Carefully slip an egg into each case, sprinkle with salt, and drizzle with melted butter.

  3. Place the cases in a high-sided sauté pan and add hot water up to a third of their depth.

Bake and serve

  1. Bake in a 350°F (175°C) oven for 8 to 10 minutes.

  2. Serve on a flat dish with a cap of tomato sauce or shrimp puree.

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

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

  2. Butter + breadtop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together27,232 recipes

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

  3. Butter + milktop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together81,283 recipes

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

  4. Pepper + tomatotop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together17,923 recipes

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

  5. Parsley + tomatotop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together5,398 recipes

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

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

What each ingredient does

Shrimp
Forms the flavorful shell that holds the egg while it cooks.
Eggs
Set in the center to form a soft, custard-like filling.
White bread crumbs
Absorb milk and bind with the shrimp, giving the paste a pliant, cohesive texture.
Butter
Adds richness and moisture, and helps the shrimp mixture hold together as a paste.

The step that matters

Bake in the water bath. Surrounding the cases with hot water in a high-sided pan moderates the heat, so the egg sets gently instead of turning rubbery or drying out before the shrimp shell is cooked.

Swap the tomato

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (shrimp, butter, bread, milk, parsley, pepper, egg):

  1. Potatofits better
  2. Capsicumfits better
  3. Asparagusfits better
  4. Tomatothe original

Fit is the average pairing score against shrimp, butter, bread, milk, parsley, pepper, egg. 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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