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Egg Toast

Egg Toast is a toasted bread topped with a mixture of mashed egg yolk, butter, ham, celery seed, onion juice, mustard, salt, pepper, and milk‑flour sauce.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 10 ingredients
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Why it works: Celery and mustard are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 2% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 4,169 recipes. Both carry guaiacol, which smells smoky, sweet. The science ↓

Egg Toast

Ingredients

Directions

Make the egg topping

  1. Boil an egg for each slice of toast.

  2. Mash the yolks with butter, ham, celery seed, onion juice, mustard, salt, and pepper.

  3. Spread the mixture on hot buttered toast.

Make the milk sauce

  1. In a saucepan, bring milk to a boil.

  2. Mix flour and butter smoothly, then add to boiling milk.

  3. Chop the egg whites finely and stir into the milk mixture.

  4. Pour the mixture over the toast.

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. Celery + mustardtop 2% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together4,169 recipes

    Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).

  2. Celery + peppertop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together16,012 recipes

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

  3. Onion + mustardtop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together9,259 recipes

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

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

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

  5. Celery + oniontop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together18,518 recipes

    Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).

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

What each ingredient does

Eggs
Yolks give richness and body to the topping, while chopped whites add texture.
Flour
Thickens the milk into a smooth, pourable sauce as it cooks.
Milk
Forms the liquid base of the sauce and carries the thickening.
Butter
Adds richness and flavor to both the yolk mixture and the flour paste.
Minced or deviled ham
Contributes savory, meaty flavor to the egg yolk filling.
Mustard pickle or french mustard
Adds sharp tang that cuts through the richness of the yolks and butter.

The step that matters

Mix flour and butter smoothly, then add to boiling milk. Flour clumps if added to hot liquid without being blended smooth first. Working the flour and butter into a paste and whisking it into boiling milk lets starch grains disperse and thicken the sauce evenly.

Swap the onion

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (egg, butter, ham, celery, mustard, pepper, milk):

  1. Asparagusfits better
  2. Potatofits better
  3. Capsicumfits better
  4. Onionthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against egg, butter, ham, celery, mustard, pepper, milk. 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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