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Steamed Eggs with Tomatoes

A dish of steamed eggs served with tomato halves, bacon, and buttered toast.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 6 ingredients
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Why it works: Tomato and parsley are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 8% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 5,398 recipes. Both carry 4'-methylacetophenone, which smells bitter almond. The science ↓

Steamed Eggs with Tomatoes

Oven, in the book's wordsA hot oven

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare and steam the eggs

  1. Butter 4 small dariole moulds and sprinkle the bottom of each with chopped parsley.

  2. Carefully break an egg into each mould and place them in a saucepan with boiling water halfway up the sides.

  3. Cover each mould with a piece of buttered paper and steam for about 5 minutes, or until set.

Cook the tomatoes and toast

  1. While the eggs are cooking, cut the tomatoes in half and place them in a tin in a hot oven.

  2. Add a small piece of butter on each tomato and cook until tender.

  3. Toast the bread and bacon until crispy.

Assemble and serve

  1. Once everything is cooked, trim the toast neatly and place half a tomato on each slice.

  2. Carefully slip an egg onto each tomato and arrange on a dish with the slices of bacon.

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. Tomato + parsleytop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together5,398 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. Egg + buttertop 17% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together118,967 recipes

    Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).

  4. Egg + parsleytop 21% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together18,765 recipes

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

  5. Tomato + buttertop 22% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together6,918 recipes

    Shared aroma: 3-hexenal (apple, fruity).

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 yet tender custard when gently steamed, forming the dish's main structure.
Tomatoes
Add moisture and acidity, and soften and sweeten slightly when baked in butter.
Bacon
Adds savory fat and flavor, and browns and crisps when toasted.
Butter
Adds richness and flavor, and helps the tomatoes soften and brown.
Toast
Gives a crisp, absorbent base that holds the tomato and egg.

The step that matters

Steaming the eggs gently. Eggs cooked with too much heat or for too long turn rubbery and watery. Keeping the water below the rims and checking at about 5 minutes lets the proteins set softly.

Swap the tomato

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

  1. Shallotfits better
  2. Chivefits better
  3. Leekfits better
  4. Tomatothe original

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