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Eggs, a LA Suisse

A baked dish of eggs topped with Gruyère cheese and cream, served with toast.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 9 ingredients
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Why it works: Nutmeg and pepper match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 7% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 13,015 recipes. Both carry 4'-methylacetophenone, which smells bitter almond. The science ↓

Eggs, a LA Suisse

Ingredients

Directions

The book gives no oven temperature. The 400°F (200°C) in the steps was added when the recipe was transcribed, as a starting point.

Prepare the dish

  1. Spread butter on the bottom of a silver dish.

  2. Place thin slices of Gruyère cheese over the butter.

Assemble

  1. Break the eggs onto the cheese, keeping yolks intact.

  2. Season the eggs with nutmeg, mignionette pepper, and salt.

  3. Pour double cream over the eggs and sprinkle grated Gruyère cheese on top.

Bake and serve

  1. Bake at 400°F (200°C) for about 15 minutes.

  2. Finish with a hot salamander and serve with toast on the side.

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. Nutmeg + peppertop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together13,015 recipes

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

  2. Butter + creamtop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together41,516 recipes

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

  3. Butter + gruyere cheesetop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together323 recipes

    Shared aroma: gamma-decalactone (peach, creamy).

  4. Nutmeg + creamtop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together7,920 recipes

    Shared aroma: acetic acid (sour, vinegar).

  5. Gruyere cheese + nutmegtop 16% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together74 recipes

    Shared aroma: myrcene (balsamic, herbaceous).

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

What each ingredient does

Eggs
Set into a custard-like body that forms the main structure of the dish.
Double cream
Adds richness and moisture, keeping the eggs tender as they bake.
Gruyère cheese
Melts and browns on top while adding savoury, nutty flavour.
Butter
Adds fat and flavour to the dish and keeps the cheese from sticking.

The step that matters

Bake at 400°F (200°C) for about 15 minutes. Eggs set quickly once heated, so overbaking can make them rubbery and dry. Check for a soft, just-set centre and yolks that remain runny.

“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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