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Eggs and Broccoli

A simple dish of boiled broccoli served on toast with a buttered egg mixture.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 6 ingredients
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Why it works: Bread and butter are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 7% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 27,232 recipes. Both carry delta-decalactone, which smells sweet, creamy. The science ↓

Eggs and Broccoli

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. Boil the large bunch of broccoli until tender.

  2. Toast a slice of bread to your desired size.

Make the eggs

  1. In a saucepan, beat the eggs well with butter and salt.

  2. Keep stirring the eggs until thickened, then pour over the toast.

Assemble and serve

  1. Place the large bunch of broccoli in the center.

  2. Arrange the small sprigs around it.

  3. Garnish with additional sprigs of broccoli.

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

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

  2. Bread + eggtop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together22,662 recipes

    Shared aroma: (e)-2-octenal (fatty, green).

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

    Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).

  4. Broccoli + breadtop 23% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together80 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl caproate (fruity).

  5. Broccoli + buttertop 26% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,451 recipes

    Shared aroma: linalool (floral, citrus).

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

What each ingredient does

Eggs
Set when stirred over heat, forming a thick, creamy topping for the toast.
Butter
Adds richness and a smooth texture to the beaten eggs.
Broccoli
Adds tender body and a fresh, mildly bitter vegetable flavor to the toast.

The step that matters

Keep stirring the eggs until thickened. Eggs set through gentle, constant stirring over heat. If they cook too fast or stop being stirred, proteins tighten into lumps and the texture turns curdled instead of smooth.

Swap the broccoli

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

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

Fit is the average pairing score against bread, 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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