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German Toast

A toast topped with a mixture of leftover fricassee, parsley, shallot or chive, eggs, and bread crumbs, baked and finished with lemon juice.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 9 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

The book gives no oven temperature. The 350°F (175°C) in the steps was added when the recipe was transcribed, as a starting point.

Prepare the filling

  1. Chop the leftover fricassee or ragout finely.

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

  3. Put the mixture with its gravy into a saucepan.

  4. Let it 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. Cut the hard-boiled egg into small pieces.

  4. Place the pieces on top of the toast.

  5. Brush the entire dish with beaten egg.

  6. Sprinkle with bread crumbs.

  7. Bake in the oven at 350°F (175°C).

  8. 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

Eggs
Beaten eggs bind the filling so it sets firm on the toast.
Bread
Toasted slices form the base that holds the thick filling.
Leftover fricassee or ragout
Its gravy thickens by reduction, giving the filling body and rich flavor.
Bread crumbs
Crumbs on top help form a crisp, browned crust during baking.

The step that matters

Reducing the filling before spreading. If the mixture is not reduced and thickened enough, it stays wet and will not hold its shape on the toast or set well in the oven. Cooling it fully before spreading also keeps the beaten egg from scrambling and makes it easier to spread thickly.

“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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