Why it works: Egg and brandy are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 17% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 7,340 recipes. Both carry acetoin, which smells butter, cream. The science ↓
Knickerbocker Baked
Ingredients
Directions
Break an egg into a sherry glass.
Add kummel and brandy.
Light the brandy and watch the egg cook.
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.
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Egg + brandytop 17% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together7,340 recipes
Shared aroma: acetoin (butter, cream).
Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs
What each ingredient does
- Egg
- Sets into a firm, cooked white and yolk when heated by the flaming brandy.
- Brandy
- Fuels the flame that cooks the egg and adds a warm, boozy aroma.
- Kummel
- Adds a caraway-like sweetness and aroma that flavours the spirit mix.
The step that matters
Light the brandy and watch the egg cook. The flame needs enough alcohol to burn briefly over the egg. Once the flame dies down, the egg may be only partly set, so the cook should watch it closely.
“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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