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Shirred Egg

A quick fried egg cooked in butter, seasoned with salt and pepper.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 5 ingredients
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Why it works: Butter and milk are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 7% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 81,283 recipes. Both carry (z)-4-heptenal, which smells biscuit, cream. The science ↓

Shirred Egg

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. Scour a clean, smooth pan with dry salt before use.

  2. Beat the eggs just enough to break them, about twelve times.

  3. Add salt, pepper, butter, and milk (if using) to the eggs.

Cook

  1. Heat the pan until hot but not scorching, then add ½ teaspoon of butter.

  2. Pour in the eggs and quickly break the surface with a knife or fork.

  3. When the eggs are soft on top, lift the pan and roll the omelet to the center.

  4. Let it cook briefly to set any egg that has run out.

  5. If needed, add a little butter to color the omelet.

Serve

  1. Invert the omelet onto a hot dish and garnish with parsley before serving.

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 + milktop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together81,283 recipes

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

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

    Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).

  3. Egg + milktop 18% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together88,785 recipes

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

  4. Pepper + buttertop 21% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together85,593 recipes

    Shared aroma: trans-2-nonenal (cardboard, fatty).

  5. Pepper + milktop 22% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together26,984 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl 2-methylbutyrate (fruity, apple).

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

What each ingredient does

Eggs
Set into the omelet's structure as they cook, forming the body of the dish.
Butter
Adds richness and moisture, and helps the omelet brown lightly and release from the pan.
Milk
Adds moisture, keeping the cooked eggs softer and more tender.

The step that matters

Heat the pan until hot but not scorching, then pour in the eggs. If the pan is too hot, the eggs brown and toughen before they set, while a pan that is too cool lets them stick and cook unevenly. Pouring into a properly heated pan gives a tender, evenly set omelet.

“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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