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Egg Salmagundi with Jam

A fried egg mixture thickened with cream, lemon, and jam, served with bread or rusks.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 5 ingredients
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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 ↓

Egg Salmagundi with Jam

Ingredients

Directions

  1. Melt the butter in a frying pan.

  2. Beat the eggs, then mix in the cream or milk and lemon juice.

  3. Pour the egg mixture into the melted butter.

  4. Stir over the heat until the mixture thickens.

  5. Stir in some jam.

  6. Serve with lady fingers, Allinson rusks, or bread fried in butter.

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. Lemon + apricottop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,098 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).

  3. Butter + apricottop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,458 recipes

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

  4. Butter + lemontop 16% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together41,227 recipes

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

  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 soft, thickened mass that forms the body of the dish.
Butter
Fat that coats the pan and enriches the eggs, adding richness and flavour.
Cream or milk
Adds moisture and softness, keeping the scrambled eggs tender rather than dry.
Lemon juice
Adds acidity that brightens the rich eggs and balances the sweet jam.
Apricot jam or other jam
Adds sweetness and fruity flavour that contrasts with the savoury eggs.

The step that matters

Stir over the heat until the mixture thickens. Eggs set quickly and turn grainy or rubbery if overheated, so keep the heat moderate and stir constantly, removing the pan from heat while the mixture is still slightly soft.

Swap the apricot

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

  1. Raspberryfits better
  2. Vanillafits better
  3. Coconutfits better
  4. Apricotthe original

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