Why it works: Egg and butter match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 8% of all ingredient pairs, and 118,511 recipes mention both. Both carry nonanal, which smells fat, citrus. The science ↓
The recipe
Ingredients
Contains: egg, milk, wheat (auto-detected from the ingredients and method; we can miss things, so check labels)
Also mentioned in the method: flour
Directions
Make the sauce
Melt half the butter in a pan.
Stir in flour until smooth and cook until frothy.
Add the milk and stir until boiling, then simmer for 5 minutes.
Add salt, pepper, parsley, and remaining butter.
Assemble and serve
Cut the eggs into quarters and arrange on a dish.
Stir lemon juice into the sauce and pour over the eggs.
Garnish with toast points and serve.
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 aroma chemistry they share, and how many recipes mention both.
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Egg + buttertop 8% of all pairsAroma overlapstrongMentioned together118,511 recipes
Shared aroma: nonanal (fat, citrus).
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Lemon + parsleytop 1% of all pairsAroma overlapstrongMentioned together14,036 recipes
Shared aroma: beta-phellandrene (minty, terpene).
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Pepper + parsleytop 2% of all pairsAroma overlapstrongMentioned together34,118 recipes
Shared aroma: 4'-methylacetophenone (bitter almond).
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Lemon + peppertop 2% of all pairsAroma overlapstrongMentioned together27,039 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).
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Butter + milktop 3% of all pairsAroma overlapstrongMentioned together81,222 recipes
Shared aroma: (z)-4-heptenal (biscuit, cream).
Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs
What each ingredient does
- Eggs
- The main substance; their whites give the dish body and their yolks add richness.
- Butter
- Adds fat and rich flavour to the sauce and helps it feel smooth on the palate.
- Milk
- Forms the liquid base that thickens with the flour into a creamy sauce.
- Lemon juice
- Adds acidity that brightens the rich, creamy sauce.
The step that matters
Stir in the flour until smooth and cook until frothy. Cooking the flour in butter until frothy cooks out its raw starchy taste. Stirring it smooth before adding the milk helps prevent lumps from forming in the sauce.
“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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