Why it works: Cheese and butter are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 8% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 7,962 recipes. Both carry delta-dodecalactone, which smells sweet, creamy. The science ↓
Eggs, Baked
Ingredients
Directions
The book gives no oven temperature. The 350°F (175°C) in the steps was added when the recipe was transcribed, as a starting point.
Prepare
Preheat the oven to 350°F (175°C).
Butter 6 ramekin dishes and add salt, cayenne, and parsley to each.
Assemble and bake
Break an egg into each ramekin.
Top each egg with an equal portion of cheese, then cover with breadcrumbs. Add a small piece of butter on top of the breadcrumbs.
Bake for about 5 minutes, or until the eggs are set, and serve hot.
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.
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Cheese + buttertop 8% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together7,962 recipes
Shared aroma: delta-dodecalactone (sweet, creamy).
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Butter + parsleytop 15% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together28,563 recipes
Shared aroma: trans-2-hexenal (green, leafy).
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Egg + buttertop 17% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together118,967 recipes
Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).
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Egg + parsleytop 21% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together18,765 recipes
Shared aroma: 2,4-decadienal (seaweed).
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Cheese + parsleytop 25% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together1,507 recipes
Shared aroma: alpha-pinene (pine, turpentine).
Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs
What each ingredient does
- Eggs
- Set to a firm but tender custard, forming the body of the dish.
- Cheese
- Adds richness and savoury flavour, and helps the top brown lightly.
- Breadcrumbs
- Form a crisp, golden topping that contrasts with the soft egg.
- Butter
- Adds fat for richness and helps the breadcrumbs brown in the oven.
The step that matters
Bake until the eggs are just set. Egg proteins set quickly with heat, so overbaking turns the yolk chalky and the white rubbery. Pulling the ramekins out once the whites are opaque lets residual heat finish the cooking.
Swap the parsley
How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (egg, cheese, butter):
- Nutmegfits about as well
- Parsleythe original
- Capersfits about as well
- Thymefits about as well
Fit is the average pairing score against egg, cheese, 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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