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Eggs a LA Suisse

Eggs a la Suisse is eggs topped with brown sauce, Parmesan, breadcrumbs, and clarified butter, then broiled.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 5 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 a LA Suisse

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. Prepare the eggs as for au miroir and lay them in the bottom of a strong, shallow dish.

Assemble and brown

  1. Pour a good brown sauce over the eggs, adding grated Parmesan cheese.

  2. Sprinkle bread crumbs mixed with cheese on top.

  3. Drizzle with clarified butter and add more bread crumbs.

  4. Brown the top nicely using a salamander.

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

    Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).

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

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

  4. Sauce + buttertop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together15,338 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).

  5. Parmesan cheese + breadtop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together577 recipes

    Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).

Sauce and butter barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 15,338 recipes: they work on texture and structure more than aroma.

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

What each ingredient does

Eggs
Form the base of the dish, setting gently under the sauce and crumbs.
Brown sauce
Adds moisture and savoury depth that keeps the eggs from drying out.
Grated parmesan cheese
Adds savoury flavour and helps the topping brown and crisp.
Bread crumbs
Form a crisp, golden topping that contrasts with the soft eggs.
Clarified butter
Adds fat that promotes even browning and a rich flavour on the crumbs.

The step that matters

Brown the top nicely using a salamander. Intense top heat browns the crumbs and cheese quickly, so the eggs underneath keep their soft set instead of overcooking while the topping colours.

“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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