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Scrambled Eggs

A quick egg dish cooked with milk, butter, salt, and pepper.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 6 ingredients
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Why it works: Pepper and parsley 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 ↓

Scrambled Eggs

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. Beat the eggs lightly to mix them.

  2. Add milk, salt, and pepper to the eggs.

Cook

  1. In a saucepan, melt the butter over medium heat until it bubbles.

  2. Pour in the egg mixture and stir constantly until the eggs are just set but still soft.

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. Pepper + parsleytop 2% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together34,122 recipes

    Shared aroma: 4'-methylacetophenone (bitter almond).

  2. Chive + parsleytop 3% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together2,150 recipes

    Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).

  3. Milk + buttertop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together81,283 recipes

    Shared aroma: (z)-4-heptenal (biscuit, cream).

  4. Pepper + tomatotop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together17,923 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).

  5. Tomato + parsleytop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together5,398 recipes

    Shared aroma: 4'-methylacetophenone (bitter almond).

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

What each ingredient does

Eggs
Set into soft curds that form the body of the dish.
Milk
Adds moisture so the eggs stay tender rather than dry and rubbery.
Butter
Adds fat for richness and keeps the eggs from sticking to the pan.

The step that matters

Stir constantly until just set but still soft. Egg proteins tighten and squeeze out water as they heat. Over high heat or without stirring they overcook into dry, rubbery lumps. Removing them while still glossy keeps the curds tender.

Swap the chive

The recipe marks chive as optional. How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (egg, milk, pepper, butter, meat, tomato, parsley):

  1. Capsicumfits better
  2. Potatofits better
  3. Carrotfits about as well
  4. Chivethe original

Fit is the average pairing score against egg, milk, pepper, butter, meat, tomato, parsley. 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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