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Steamed Eggs

Steamed eggs baked in buttered cups with ham, bacon, veal or chicken and parsley, served on buttered toast.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 5 ingredients
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Why it works: Butter and parsley are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 15% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 28,563 recipes. Both carry trans-2-hexenal, which smells green, leafy. The science ↓

Steamed Eggs

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the cups

  1. Thickly spread the inside of small cups with butter.

  2. Press a mixture of cooked and minced ham, bacon, veal or chicken, and chopped parsley against the sides.

Steam and serve

  1. Break an egg into the middle of each cup.

  2. Cover with greased paper and steam until the eggs are firm.

  3. Turn out onto rounds of buttered toast.

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. Butter + parsleytop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together28,563 recipes

    Shared aroma: trans-2-hexenal (green, leafy).

  2. Butter + hamtop 16% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together5,475 recipes

    Shared aroma: trans-2-decenal (waxy, orange).

  3. Ham + eggtop 17% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together4,526 recipes

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

  4. Butter + eggtop 17% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together118,967 recipes

    Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).

  5. Parsley + eggtop 21% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together18,765 recipes

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

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

What each ingredient does

Eggs
Set into a firm, tender custard when steamed, forming the main body of the dish.
Butter
Coats the cups and toast, adding richness and helping the dish release cleanly.
Cooked and minced ham, bacon, veal or chicken
Adds savoury flavour and salty, meaty taste that contrasts with the eggs.

The step that matters

Cover with greased paper and steam until the eggs are firm. Egg proteins set at moderate heat and turn rubbery if overcooked, so checking for firmness, not a fixed time, keeps the texture soft and tender.

Swap the parsley

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

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

Fit is the average pairing score against butter, ham, egg. 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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