Skip to main content
Main

Eggs, Scrambled, with Anchovies

Scrambled eggs flavored with anchovies, served on buttered toast with capers and parsley.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 11 ingredients
Jump to recipe ↓

Why it works: Capers and parsley match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 1,550 recipes. Both carry coumarin, which smells sweet, hay. The science ↓

Eggs, Scrambled, with Anchovies

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. Skin and bone the anchovies, then cut them into fine strips.

  2. Cut the toast into pieces 3 inches long and 2 inches wide, and spread them thickly with butter.

Make the scrambled eggs

  1. Beat the eggs slightly, then combine them with the butter, cream, and anchovy essence in a saucepan.

  2. Season to taste and stir over low heat until the mixture thickens.

Assemble and serve

  1. Spoon the mixture onto the toast, lay the anchovy strips across, and place a caper in each division.

  2. Reheat in the oven, then serve garnished with parsley.

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. Capers + parsleytop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together1,550 recipes

    Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).

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

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

  3. Anchovy + caperstop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together473 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-methylbutyraldehyde (malty, chocolate).

  4. Butter + creamtop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together41,516 recipes

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

  5. Egg + anchovytop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together2,330 recipes

    Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).

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

What each ingredient does

Eggs
Set into a soft, creamy mass as they thicken over gentle heat.
Anchovies
Add a salty, savoury flavour that carries through the dish.
Butter
Adds richness and a smooth, moist texture to the eggs and toast.
Cream or milk
Adds moisture so the eggs stay soft and tender rather than dry.

The step that matters

Stir over low heat until the mixture thickens. Egg proteins set at gentle temperatures, so high heat can curdle and toughen the eggs. Slow, steady stirring keeps the mixture soft and creamy.

Swap the capers

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (egg, butter, cream, anchovy, parsley, pepper):

  1. Nutmegfits about as well
  2. Capersthe original
  3. Tarragonfits about as well
  4. Thymefits about as well

Fit is the average pairing score against egg, butter, cream, anchovy, parsley, pepper. 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.

You might also like

Tomato SoupTomato Soup526 recipesBrown BreadBrown Bread461 recipesMutton BrothMutton Broth292 recipesYorkshire PuddingYorkshire Pudding264 recipes