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A German Entremet

A baked egg dish with yolk mixture and bread crumbs.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 6 ingredients
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Why it works: Egg and bread are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 13% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 22,662 recipes. Both carry (e)-2-octenal, which smells fatty, green. The science ↓

A German Entremet

Ingredients

Directions

The book gives no oven temperature. The 300°F (150°C) in the steps was added when the recipe was transcribed, as a starting point.

Prepare the filling

  1. Cut the hard-boiled eggs in half lengthwise and carefully remove the yolks.

  2. Pass the yolks through a fine sieve and mix with cream, pepper, salt, and herbs.

Assemble

  1. Pour the mixture into a flat pie dish that can withstand heat.

  2. Arrange the egg white halves in the dish in a star pattern or preferred design.

  3. Fill the egg whites with the yolk mixture and sprinkle bread crumbs on top.

Bake and serve

  1. Bake at 300°F (150°C) just until the top is a bright yellow color.

  2. Serve in the baking dish.

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. Egg + breadtop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together22,662 recipes

    Shared aroma: (e)-2-octenal (fatty, green).

  2. Pepper + breadtop 16% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together20,964 recipes

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

  3. Cream + peppertop 23% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together21,449 recipes

    Shared aroma: acetic acid (sour, vinegar).

  4. Egg + creamtop 24% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together42,166 recipes

    Shared aroma: acetic acid (sour, vinegar).

  5. Cream + breadtop 24% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together5,789 recipes

    Shared aroma: delta-decalactone (sweet, creamy).

Cream and pepper barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 21,449 recipes: they work on texture and structure more than aroma.

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

What each ingredient does

Hard-boiled eggs
Egg whites form the structure and visual pattern, while the sieved yolks give the rich filling.
Cream
Adds moisture and richness, giving the yolk filling a smooth, soft texture.
Bread crumbs
Form a topping that browns lightly in the oven, adding a contrasting texture.

The step that matters

Baking until just bright yellow. Egg yolks and cream set through gentle heat. Baking only until the top turns bright yellow keeps the custard-like filling tender and prevents it from becoming dry, grainy, or rubbery.

“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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