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Eggs, in Cases

Baked eggs with Parmesan, breadcrumbs, cream, and shallot in ramekins.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 10 ingredients
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Why it works: Parsley and shallot match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 3,737 recipes. Both carry 2,4-decadienal, which smells seaweed. The science ↓

Eggs, in Cases

Oven, in the book's wordsA moderate oven

Ingredients

Directions

The book says “a moderate oven”. The 350°F in the steps is the modern equivalent, not the book's own figure.

Prepare the ramekins

  1. Brush the inside of the ramekin cases with clarified butter or oil.

  2. Place the ramekins on a baking sheet in the oven for a few minutes.

Make the filling

  1. Fry the shallot in a little butter.

  2. Drain the shallot and divide it equally among the cases.

  3. In a bowl, mix the bread crumbs with half the cheese, parsley, salt, and pepper.

  4. Distribute the mixture into each case.

Bake and serve

  1. Add a small piece of butter to each case.

  2. Carefully break an egg into each case.

  3. Sprinkle with salt and pepper.

  4. Pour a little cream over each egg.

  5. Add the remaining cheese.

  6. Bake in a moderate oven (350°F / 175°C) until set, about 6 minutes.

  7. Sprinkle with parsley.

  8. Serve.

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. Parsley + shallottop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together3,737 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2,4-decadienal (seaweed).

  2. Parsley + peppertop 2% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together34,122 recipes

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

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

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

  4. Cream + buttertop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together41,516 recipes

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

  5. Parmesan cheese + buttertop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together4,163 recipes

    Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).

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

What each ingredient does

Eggs
Set to form the soft, cooked centre of each baked egg.
Parmesan cheese
Adds savoury, salty flavour and browns on top in the oven.
Bread crumbs
Soak up moisture and add a light, textured layer to the base.
Cream
Adds richness and moisture so the egg stays tender.
Shallot
Adds mild, sweet aromatic flavour when fried gently in butter.

The step that matters

Bake until just set. Eggs continue to cook from residual heat after leaving the oven, and overbaking turns the yolk chalky and firm. Pulling them while the whites are set but the yolks still look soft keeps the texture creamy.

Swap the shallot

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

  1. Spinachfits better
  2. Asparagusfits better
  3. Potatofits about as well
  4. Shallotthe original

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