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Eggs, Gratin Of, with Cheese

A baked dish of eggs and grated bread with cheese, nutmeg, and pepper.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 7 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, Gratin Of, with Cheese

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the base

  1. Mix the grated bread, grated Parmesan cheese, butter, egg yolks, nutmeg, and pepper in a bowl.

  2. Spread the mixture over the bottom of a baking dish.

Add the eggs and cook

  1. Place the dish over gentle heat to create a gratin.

  2. Break the 10 eggs on top of the gratin mixture.

  3. Sprinkle additional Parmesan cheese over the surface.

  4. Finish cooking until set and brown the top using a salamander or broiler.

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

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

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

    Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).

  4. Bread + eggtop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together22,662 recipes

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

  5. Bread + nutmegtop 14% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together5,997 recipes

    Shared aroma: eucalyptol (eucalyptus, herbal).

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

What each ingredient does

Eggs
Set into a firm, custardy layer that holds the gratin together when cooked.
Parmesan cheese
Adds savoury flavour and helps the top brown and form a crisp crust.
Egg yolks
Add richness and a smooth, creamy texture to the base.
Butter
Adds fat for richness and helps the crumbs toast golden.
Grated bread
Provides body and soaks up moisture, giving the base a light crumb structure.

The step that matters

Finish cooking until set and brown the top using a salamander or broiler. Egg proteins set at moderate heat and turn rubbery if overcooked, so the eggs should be removed as soon as the whites firm. Browning the top needs intense heat applied briefly, so watch closely to avoid scorching.

Swap the nutmeg

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (bread, parmesan cheese, butter, egg, pepper):

  1. Parsleyfits better
  2. Nutmegthe original
  3. Sagefits about as well
  4. Capersfits about as well

Fit is the average pairing score against bread, parmesan cheese, butter, egg, pepper. 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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