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Eggs in Cases

Baked eggs served in small ramekins with pepper, salt, parsley, grated bread, cheese, and butter.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 7 ingredients
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Why it works: Pepper and parsley 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 quick oven

Ingredients

Directions

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

Prepare

  1. Preheat the oven to 400°F (200°C).

  2. Butter 4 small paper ramekin cases or china cases inside.

Assemble

  1. Sprinkle a little pepper, salt, and chopped parsley in the bottom of each case.

  2. Carefully drop an egg from the shell into each case.

  3. Sprinkle a little grated bread and cheese over each egg.

  4. Place a small bit of butter on top of each egg.

Bake and serve

  1. Bake in the oven for about 3 minutes until the eggs set.

  2. Serve in the cases.

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. Pepper + parsleytop 2% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together34,122 recipes

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

  2. Bread + buttertop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together27,232 recipes

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

  3. Cheese + breadtop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together2,130 recipes

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

  4. Cheese + buttertop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together7,962 recipes

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

  5. Egg + breadtop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together22,662 recipes

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

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

What each ingredient does

Eggs
Set into a firm but tender custard as they cook, forming the main body of the dish.
Grated bread
Adds a light crumb on top that helps the surface brown as it bakes.
Grated cheese
Melts and browns on the surface, adding savoury flavour and golden colour.
Butter
Adds richness and moisture, and helps the top brown in the hot oven.

The step that matters

Baking until the eggs just set. Egg whites set at around 60 to 70°C and yolks thicken more gradually. Removing the ramekins once the whites are opaque and the yolks still look soft keeps the yolks runny and prevents a rubbery texture from overcooking.

Swap the parsley

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

  1. Parsleythe original
  2. Nutmegfits about as well
  3. Thymefits less well
  4. Sagefits less well

Fit is the average pairing score against egg, pepper, cheese, bread, butter. 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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