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Eggs and Peppers

A skillet dish of eggs, peppers, onion, tomato, butter, stock, and cheese.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 7 ingredients
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Why it works: Pepper and tomato are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 7% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 17,923 recipes. Both carry 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine, which smells earthy, pea. The science ↓

Eggs and Peppers

Ingredients

Directions

The book gives no oven temperature. The 400°F (200°C) in the steps was added when the recipe was transcribed, as a starting point.

Roast and prepare the peppers

  1. Roast the peppers in the oven at 400°F (200°C) until the skin is charred.

  2. Peel the skin off, remove the seeds, and cut the peppers into small shreds.

Make and serve

  1. In a skillet, fry the chopped onion and tomato in butter until soft.

  2. Add the stock and bring to a simmer.

  3. Break in the eggs and cook for 5 minutes.

  4. Stir in the shredded peppers and sprinkle with grated cheese before serving.

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. Pepper + tomatotop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together17,923 recipes

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

  2. Onion + tomatotop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together20,633 recipes

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

  3. Butter + cheesetop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together7,962 recipes

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

  4. Pepper + oniontop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together68,474 recipes

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

  5. Tomato + cheesetop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together2,896 recipes

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

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

What each ingredient does

Eggs
Set into the simmering stock to form a tender, cohesive texture around the peppers.
Peppers
Provide the main body of the dish, with sweetness and a soft texture after roasting.
Butter
Adds fat and richness when frying the onion and tomato, carrying flavour.
Stock
Forms the simmering liquid that cooks the eggs and carries the dish's flavour.
Grated cheese
Adds savoury flavour and a melted, salty topping over the finished dish.

The step that matters

Simmering the eggs. Cracking eggs into a gently simmering stock and cooking them for a set time lets the whites set while the yolks stay soft. A hard boil toughens the whites and can break the eggs apart.

Swap the onion

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (pepper, tomato, butter, egg, cheese):

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

Fit is the average pairing score against pepper, tomato, butter, egg, cheese. 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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