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EggS with Melted Cheese

A dish of eggs cooked with melted Parmesan cheese, wine, herbs, and spices.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 8 ingredients
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Why it works: Parsley and pepper 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 ↓

EggS with Melted Cheese

Oven, in the book's wordsA moderate oven

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. Grate the Parmesan cheese into a dish.

  2. Set the dish on low heat and add white wine, parsley, chives, pepper, nutmeg, and butter.

Cook and serve

  1. Stir while cooking until the cheese melts.

  2. Break in the eggs and cook for 5 more minutes.

  3. Serve hot, surrounded by heart-shaped croutons.

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. Parsley + peppertop 2% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together34,122 recipes

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

  2. Parsley + chivetop 3% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together2,150 recipes

    Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).

  3. Parsley + nutmegtop 3% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together5,062 recipes

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

  4. Chive + nutmegtop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together300 recipes

    Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).

  5. Pepper + nutmegtop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together13,015 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

Parmesan cheese
Melts into the sauce, adding savory flavor and a thick, rich body.
Butter
Adds fat for a smooth, glossy texture and rich flavor.
White wine
Adds acidity and moisture that thin the melted cheese into a sauce.
Eggs
Set with gentle heat to form the soft body of the dish.

The step that matters

Break in the eggs and cook for 5 more minutes. Eggs set when heated, and on low heat they firm gently. Higher heat or overcooking makes them tough and rubbery, so keep the heat low and watch the whites closely.

Swap the nutmeg

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (parmesan cheese, white wine, parsley, chive, pepper, butter, egg):

  1. Tarragonfits better
  2. Thymefits better
  3. Capersfits better
  4. Nutmegthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against parmesan cheese, white wine, parsley, chive, pepper, butter, egg. 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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