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Cupped Eggs

Eggs cooked in cups with breadcrumbs, parsley, ham, and served on croutons or toast.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 8 ingredients
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Why it works: Parsley and pepper match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 2% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 34,122 recipes. Both carry 4'-methylacetophenone, which smells bitter almond. The science ↓

Cupped Eggs

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the cups

  1. Butter 4 cups and sprinkle them with chopped parsley.

  2. Add a little pepper and coarse sea salt to each cup.

Cook the eggs

  1. Break an egg into each cup.

  2. Cover the eggs with the mixed breadcrumbs and minced ham.

  3. Set the cups in a saucepan of boiling water for about 5 minutes.

  4. Carefully turn them out onto the croutons or buttered toast.

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 + peppertop 2% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together34,122 recipes

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

  2. Parsley + buttertop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together28,563 recipes

    Shared aroma: trans-2-hexenal (green, leafy).

  3. Butter + hamtop 16% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together5,475 recipes

    Shared aroma: trans-2-decenal (waxy, orange).

  4. Egg + hamtop 17% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together4,526 recipes

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

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

    Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).

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, tender custard-like texture when gently heated in the cups.
Breadcrumbs
Form a light crumb layer over the eggs, adding soft texture and some structure.
Butter
Greases the cups so the eggs release cleanly, and adds richness to the flavor.
Minced ham
Adds savory, salty flavor to the eggs and crumbs.

The step that matters

Set the cups in boiling water for about 5 minutes. Egg proteins set at moderate heat, so the eggs can turn rubbery if overcooked. Checking early keeps the yolks soft and the whites tender.

“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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