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Egg in Buttered Cup

A simple baked egg cooked in a buttered cup or ramekin.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 5 ingredients
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Why it works: Cream and butter 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 in Buttered Cup

Oven, in the book's wordsA moderate oven

Ingredients

Directions

The book says “a moderate oven”. The 350°F (175°C) in the steps is the modern equivalent, not the book's own figure.

Prepare

  1. Preheat your oven to 350°F (175°C).

  2. Carefully break an egg into a buttered cup or ramekin.

  3. Sprinkle very lightly with salt.

Bake

  1. Stand the cup in a pan of hot water and cover it.

  2. Place the pan on the back of the range or in the oven until the egg white is set.

  3. If desired, add buttered crumbs under and over the egg.

  4. You can pour 1 tablespoon of cream over the egg before adding the top layer of crumbs.

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. Cream + buttertop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together41,516 recipes

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

  2. Egg + buttertop 17% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together118,967 recipes

    Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).

  3. Egg + creamtop 24% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together42,166 recipes

    Shared aroma: acetic acid (sour, vinegar).

Egg and cream barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 42,166 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

Egg
Its proteins set with gentle heat, forming the body of the dish.
Cream
Adds moisture and richness, keeping the egg white tender as it sets.

The step that matters

Cover the cup and set the egg gently in hot water. Egg white proteins set at moderate heat and turn rubbery when overcooked. Standing the cup in hot water, covered, cooks the egg gently and evenly, so the white sets while the yolk stays soft.

“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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