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German Toast

A toast topped with leftover fricassee or ragout, parsley, shallot or chive, eggs, and bread crumbs, finished with boiled egg and lemon juice.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 7 ingredients
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Why it works: Parsley and lemon match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 14,037 recipes. Both carry beta-phellandrene, which smells minty, terpene. The science ↓

German Toast

Ingredients

Directions

Make the topping

  1. Chop the leftover fricassee or ragout finely.

  2. Mix the chopped fricassee with chopped parsley, shallot or chive, and beaten eggs.

  3. Put the mixture with its gravy in a stewpan.

  4. Let the mixture reduce and thicken over heat.

  5. Allow the mixture to cool.

Assemble and bake

  1. Toast slices of bread.

  2. Spread the mixture thickly on the toasted bread.

  3. Boil an egg hard.

  4. Cut the boiled egg into small pieces.

  5. Place the egg pieces on top of the toast.

  6. Brush the toast with beaten egg.

  7. Sprinkle bread crumbs over the toast.

  8. Bake the toast in the oven.

Finish and serve

  1. Squeeze a little lemon juice on top before serving.

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 + lemontop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together14,037 recipes

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

  2. Parsley + shallottop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together3,737 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2,4-decadienal (seaweed).

  3. Shallot + lemontop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together2,523 recipes

    Shared aroma: eucalyptol (eucalyptus, herbal).

  4. Shallot + breadtop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,245 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2,4-decadienal (seaweed).

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

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

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

What each ingredient does

Leftover fricassee or ragout
Forms the savory base and, with its gravy, supplies moisture and flavor.
Eggs
Bind the mixture and set when heated, giving it structure and body.
Bread
Serves as the crisp base that holds the topping.
Bread crumbs
Sprinkled on top, they help form a browned, crisp surface when baked.
Lemon juice
Adds acidity that brightens the rich, savory flavors.

The step that matters

Let the mixture reduce and thicken, then cool it fully. If the mixture stays thin, it soaks into the toast and runs off instead of holding a thick layer. Reducing concentrates the gravy and thickens it, and cooling lets it firm up before spreading.

“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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