Name: Eggs a LA Golden Rod
Ingredients: 4 eggs; 2 ¼ tablespoons melted butter; 2 ¼ tablespoons flour; 2 cups hot milk; Coarse sea salt to taste; Paprika to taste; 1 heaping cup grated cheese; Hot buttered toast; Small stuffed olives for garnish

Why it works: Butter and milk are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 7% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 81,283 recipes. Both carry (z)-4-heptenal, which smells biscuit, cream. The science ↓

Eggs a LA Golden Rod

Ingredients

Directions

Make the sauce

In a saucepan, blend the melted butter and flour until smooth.
Gradually add the hot milk and bring the mixture to a boil.
Season the sauce with coarse sea salt and paprika.

Prepare and serve

Boil the eggs for 20 minutes, then cool, shell, and dice them.
Stir in the diced eggs and grated cheese, cooking until the cheese melts.
Serve the mixture on rounds of hot buttered toast, garnished with small stuffed olives.

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.

Butter + milktop 7% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together81,283 recipes

Shared aroma: (z)-4-heptenal (biscuit, cream).
Butter + cheesetop 8% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together7,962 recipes

Shared aroma: delta-dodecalactone (sweet, creamy).
Milk + cheesetop 10% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together4,426 recipes

Shared aroma: delta-dodecalactone (sweet, creamy).
Cheese + olivetop 11% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together3,802 recipes

Shared aroma: methyl 2-methylbutyrate (apple, fatty).
Butter + flourtop 12% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked together124,287 recipes

Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

Butter and flour barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 124,287 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: Provide the main body of the dish, with diced egg giving it substance and a soft texture.
Melted butter: Combines with flour to form a roux that thickens the sauce and adds richness.
Flour: Thickens the milk into a smooth sauce as it cooks with the butter.
Hot milk: Forms the liquid base of the sauce, which thickens as it comes to a boil.
Grated cheese: Melts into the sauce, adding savory flavor and a creamy, binding texture.

The step that matters

Adding the flour and butter to the milk. Flour must be blended smoothly with the butter and milk added gradually, then brought to a boil, so the starch fully thickens and the sauce has no lumps.

“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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Eggs a LA Golden Rod