Skip to main content
Breakfast

Buttered Eggs

Eggs stirred over low heat in a saucepan with butter, parsley, anchovy, consommé or ham essence, and cayenne, served on toast.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 6 ingredients
Jump to recipe ↓

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 ↓

Buttered Eggs

Ingredients

Directions

Make the eggs

  1. Break the eggs into a saucepan.

  2. Add the chopped parsley, mashed anchovy, consommé or essence of ham, warmed butter, and Cayenne pepper.

  3. Beat the mixture together.

  4. Place the saucepan over low heat and stir continuously with a wooden spoon until thickened to prevent burning.

Serve

  1. Serve in a deep dish with fresh toast underneath.

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. Egg + anchovytop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together2,330 recipes

    Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).

  3. Anchovy + buttertop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together3,697 recipes

    Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).

  4. Parsley + anchovytop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,702 recipes

    Shared aroma: linalool (floral, citrus).

  5. Anchovy + hamtop 14% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together256 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 and thicken as they cook, forming the body of the dish.
Butter
Adds richness and a smooth, silky mouthfeel to the eggs.
Anchovy
Contributes a savory, salty depth of flavour.
Consommé or essence of ham
Adds meaty savoury flavour and liquid to loosen the mixture.

The step that matters

Stirring over low heat. Eggs thicken as their proteins set, and the mixture can curdle or scorch if heated too fast. Constant stirring over low heat keeps it smooth and prevents burning on the pan base.

“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.

More buttered eggs recipes

Indian 3 See all 55 →

You might also like

Rice GruelRice Gruel28 recipesPeptoned Milk GruelPeptoned Milk Gruel9 recipes