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Eggs in Cases

Eggs cooked in buttered paper cases with parsley or onion, pepper, sea salt, and seasoned bread crumbs.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 7 ingredients
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Why it works: Parsley and pepper match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 2% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 34,122 recipes. Both carry 4'-methylacetophenone, which smells bitter almond. The science ↓

Eggs in Cases

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the cases

  1. Make small paper cases from buttered writing paper.

  2. Place a small piece of butter in each case.

  3. Add a little chopped parsley or onion, pepper, and coarse sea salt.

Cook and serve

  1. Place the cases on a gridiron over a moderate fire of bright coals.

  2. When the butter melts, break a fresh egg into each case.

  3. Sprinkle seasoned bread crumbs on top of the eggs.

  4. When nearly done, glaze the tops with a hot shovel.

  5. Serve in the paper cases.

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

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

  2. Butter + breadtop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together27,232 recipes

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

  3. Egg + breadtop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together22,662 recipes

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

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

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

  5. Parsley + breadtop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together8,588 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

Fresh eggs
Set into a soft, cooked custard-like texture as the heat firms the proteins.
Seasoned bread crumbs
Add a light, toasted crust on top of the eggs as they cook.
Butter
Melts to coat the eggs and paper, adding richness and moisture.

The step that matters

Glaze the tops with a hot shovel. Eggs cook quickly over coals, so the glaze must come near the end. Too early and the eggs overcook and turn rubbery; too late and the tops stay pale and wet.

Swap the parsley

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

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

Fit is the average pairing score against butter, pepper, egg, bread. 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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