Skip to main content
Main

Eggs, Fricasseed, a LA Bengal

Eggs served in a creamy onion and bacon sauce.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 9 ingredients
Jump to recipe ↓

Why it works: Butter and cream are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 8% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 41,516 recipes. Both carry delta-dodecalactone, which smells sweet, creamy. The science ↓

Eggs, Fricasseed, a LA Bengal

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the sauce

  1. Peel and chop the onions.

  2. Cook the onions in butter over low heat until soft, without browning.

  3. Add the cream and stock to the onions, stirring well.

  4. Season with salt and pepper to taste.

  5. In a separate pan, cook the bacon until crispy, then chop it into small pieces.

  6. Add the cooked bacon to the sauce.

Assemble and serve

  1. Hard boil the eggs, then peel and slice them.

  2. Arrange the sliced eggs on a hot dish and pour the sauce over them.

  3. Garnish as desired.

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

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

  2. Onion + peppertop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together68,474 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).

  3. Onion + buttertop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together42,912 recipes

    Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).

  4. Egg + buttertop 17% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together118,967 recipes

    Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).

  5. Onion + creamtop 18% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together10,827 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-nonanone (fruity, floral).

Onion and cream barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 10,827 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 main body of the dish, providing the substance of the fricassee.
Butter
Enriches the onions and carries their flavour while they soften gently.
Cream
Adds richness and a smooth, silky texture to the sauce.
Stock
Provides savoury liquid that thins the cream into a pourable sauce.
Bacon
Adds salty, smoky fat and crisp texture to the sauce.
Onions
Contribute sweetness and aromatic depth as they soften without browning.

The step that matters

Cook the onions until soft, without browning. Low heat softens the onions and draws out their sweetness. Browning would add bitter, toasted notes that clash with the delicate cream sauce.

Swap the onion

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

  1. Potatofits better
  2. Spinachfits better
  3. Asparagusfits better
  4. Onionthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against egg, butter, cream, 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.

You might also like

Tomato SoupTomato Soup526 recipesBrown BreadBrown Bread461 recipesMutton BrothMutton Broth292 recipesYorkshire PuddingYorkshire Pudding264 recipes