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Spanish Eggs

A baked dish of poached eggs in tomato puree with sausage and butter.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 4 ingredients
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Why it works: Egg and butter are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 17% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 118,967 recipes. Both carry decanal, which smells soap, orange peel. The science ↓

Spanish Eggs

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

  1. Preheat the oven to 350°F (175°C).

  2. Cover the bottom of an earthen baking dish with well-seasoned tomato puree.

Assemble and bake

  1. Arrange poached eggs on the puree, leaving spaces to show the red color.

  2. Lay whole small sausages or 1-inch pieces of sausage between the eggs.

  3. Place a small piece of butter on each egg.

  4. Heat the dish in the oven until warmed through.

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. Egg + buttertop 17% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together118,967 recipes

    Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).

  2. Tomato + buttertop 22% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together6,918 recipes

    Shared aroma: 3-hexenal (apple, fruity).

  3. Tomato + eggtop 34% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together5,890 recipes

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

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

What each ingredient does

Tomato puree
Forms the moist red base that the eggs sit in and adds acidity and savory flavor.
Poached eggs
Provide the main protein, setting as the dish heats and giving a soft, rich texture.
Sausages
Add savory, fatty flavor and a firmer texture against the soft eggs.
Butter
Adds richness and a silky mouthfeel as it melts over the eggs.

The step that matters

Heat the dish in the oven until warmed through. Poached eggs are already cooked, so the oven only needs to warm them. Overheating can make the yolks dry and rubbery and toughen the whites.

Swap the tomato

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

  1. Asparagusfits better
  2. Chivefits better
  3. Leekfits better
  4. Tomatothe original

Fit is the average pairing score against egg, 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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