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Scrambled Eggs

Scrambled eggs made with eggs, salt, milk, butter, optionally ham or veal.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 5 ingredients
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Why it works: Milk and butter are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 7% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 81,283 recipes. Both carry (z)-4-heptenal, which smells biscuit, cream. The science ↓

Scrambled Eggs

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. Beat the eggs well with a fork.

  2. Add salt and milk, mixing thoroughly.

  3. Heat the butter in an omelet pan.

  4. Pour the egg mixture into the pan.

Cook and serve

  1. Cook quickly, stirring constantly, until the eggs are firm but soft.

  2. Pour the eggs into a warm dish and serve immediately.

  3. Optionally, serve on minced ham or veal.

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. Milk + buttertop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together81,283 recipes

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

  2. Butter + hamtop 16% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together5,475 recipes

    Shared aroma: trans-2-decenal (waxy, orange).

  3. Egg + hamtop 17% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together4,526 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2,4-decadienal (seaweed).

  4. Egg + buttertop 17% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together118,967 recipes

    Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).

  5. Egg + milktop 18% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together88,785 recipes

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

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

What each ingredient does

Eggs
Set into soft curds that give the scrambled eggs their structure.
Milk
Adds moisture so the eggs stay tender rather than dry.
Butter
Fat that keeps the eggs from sticking and adds richness.

The step that matters

Cook quickly, stirring constantly, until the eggs are firm but soft.. Egg proteins set as they heat, and over-cooking squeezes out moisture, making the eggs dry and rubbery. Constant stirring keeps curds small and tender, and removing the pan while the eggs still look slightly soft lets residual heat finish the set.

“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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