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Savoiy, and Lemon-thyme

A baked egg mixture with butter, herbs, cream, and beaten eggs, served with brown sauce.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 11 ingredients
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Why it works: Lemon and thyme match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 3,973 recipes. Both carry beta-phellandrene, which smells minty, terpene. The science ↓

Savoiy, and Lemon-thyme

Oven, in the book's wordsA moderately hot oven

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the filling

  1. Remove the yolks from the hard-boiled eggs and mash them with butter.

  2. Add the mixed herbs, bread crumbs, pepper, salt, and mace or nutmeg.

  3. Stir in the cream and 2 beaten eggs.

Roast and serve

  1. Melt some butter in a tin and add the mixture.

  2. Roast in a Dutch oven, adding more butter occasionally.

  3. When browned on one side, turn it over and cook until done.

  4. Serve with brown sauce poured on top and garnish with chopped egg whites.

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. Lemon + thymetop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together3,973 recipes

    Shared aroma: beta-phellandrene (minty, terpene).

  2. Lemon + peppertop 3% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together27,047 recipes

    Shared aroma: trans-2-nonenal (cardboard, fatty).

  3. Thyme + peppertop 4% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together11,585 recipes

    Shared aroma: beta-phellandrene (minty, terpene).

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

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

  5. Cream + saucetop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together4,787 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).

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

What each ingredient does

Hard-boiled eggs
Provide the bulk and a firm, sliceable body to the savory bake.
Butter
Adds richness and moisture, and helps the surface brown during roasting.
Cream
Adds moisture and softness, keeping the custard-like mixture tender.
Beaten eggs
Bind the mixture and help it set when cooked.
Bread crumbs (in the method)
Absorb liquid and give the mixture body and structure.

The step that matters

Turning the bake. Turning only once the first side is browned lets the mixture set enough to hold its shape. Turning too early can break it apart, while leaving it too long can dry the centre.

Swap the mace

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (egg, butter, lemon, thyme, cream, pepper, sauce):

  1. Parsleyfits better
  2. Tarragonfits better
  3. Marjoramfits better
  4. Macethe original

Fit is the average pairing score against egg, butter, lemon, thyme, cream, pepper, sauce. 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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