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Eggs Creamed

Eggs creamed with butter and cream, served hot over anchovy buttered toast and garnished with parsley.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 8 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 Creamed

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. Spread the toast with anchovy butter, cut into pieces, and keep hot.

  2. Beat the eggs with the cream and season with pepper and salt.

  3. Melt the butter in a small double saucepan.

Cook and serve

  1. Pour in the egg mixture and stir over low heat until creamy and just about to set.

  2. Spread the creamy eggs on the buttered toast, garnish with crispy parsley, and serve hot.

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. Butter + creamtop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together41,516 recipes

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

  3. Egg + anchovytop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together2,330 recipes

    Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).

  4. Butter + anchovytop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together3,697 recipes

    Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).

  5. Anchovy + parsleytop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,702 recipes

    Shared aroma: linalool (floral, citrus).

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

What each ingredient does

Eggs
Set into a soft, creamy custard as they are gently heated.
Butter
Enriches the eggs and adds richness and a smooth texture.
Cream
Adds moisture and softness, keeping the eggs tender and creamy.
Anchovy butter
Adds a salty, savoury flavour to the toast beneath the eggs.

The step that matters

Stir over low heat until just about to set. Eggs proteins set quickly and tighten when overheated, turning grainy or curdled. Gentle low heat and constant stirring keep the mixture creamy. Removing it while still slightly soft lets residual heat finish the set.

Swap the parsley

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

  1. Parsleythe original
  2. Nutmegfits about as well
  3. Capersfits less well
  4. Tarragonfits less well

Fit is the average pairing score against egg, butter, cream, pepper, anchovy. 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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