Name: Marmite Toasts
Ingredients: 1 round of toast; 1 teaspoon Marmite; 1 tablespoon butter; 1 poached egg (optional); Gravy from roast meat (optional); 1 tablespoon minced chicken (optional); 1 tablespoon cream (optional); Salt and pepper to taste (optional); A pinch of nutmeg or ground mace (optional)

Why it works: Pepper and nutmeg match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 7% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 13,015 recipes. Both carry 4'-methylacetophenone, which smells bitter almond. The science ↓

Marmite Toasts

Ingredients

1 round of toast
1 teaspoon Marmite
1 tablespoon butter
1 poached egg (optional)
Gravy from roast meat (optional)
1 tablespoon minced chicken (optional)
1 tablespoon cream (optional)
Salt and pepper to taste (optional)
A pinch of nutmeg or ground mace (optional)

Directions

Make the toast

Butter the toast and spread a very small amount of Marmite on top.
Cut the toast into fingers and serve.
For a variation, use Marmite mixed with butter instead.

Add optional toppings

Optionally, add a lightly poached egg on top of the toast with a bit of Marmite butter.
You can also drizzle some gravy from roast meat over the toast.
For a more substantial option, top the toast with minced chicken mixed with cream, seasoned with salt, pepper, and nutmeg or ground mace.

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.

Pepper + nutmegtop 7% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together13,015 recipes

Shared aroma: 4'-methylacetophenone (bitter almond).
Butter + creamtop 8% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together41,516 recipes

Shared aroma: delta-dodecalactone (sweet, creamy).
Meat + chickentop 13% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked together2,449 recipes

Shared aroma: 1-octen-3-one (mushroom, metallic).
Cream + nutmegtop 13% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together7,920 recipes

Shared aroma: acetic acid (sour, vinegar).
Butter + chickentop 15% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together13,902 recipes

Shared aroma: 2-furfurylthiol (coffee, roasted).

Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs

What each ingredient does

Marmite: Adds a salty, savoury, umami flavour to the toast.
Butter: Adds fat and richness, carrying the Marmite flavour across the toast.
Poached egg: Adds richness and a soft, runny yolk that moistens the toast.
Minced chicken: Adds savoury protein and bulk for a more substantial topping.
Cream: Adds moisture and richness to the minced chicken topping.

Swap the nutmeg

The recipe marks nutmeg as optional. How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (butter, egg, meat, chicken, cream, pepper):

Nutmegthe original
Parsleyfits about as well
Tarragonfits about as well
Thymefits about as well

Fit is the average pairing score against butter, egg, meat, chicken, cream, pepper. 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.