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
In a bowl, beat together the eggs, milk, butter, and salt.
Melt the butter in a pan over medium heat.
Cook and serve
Pour the egg mixture into the pan and cook until it thickens.
Spoon the scrambled eggs into a dish and serve.
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.
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Milk + buttertop 7% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together81,283 recipes
Shared aroma: (z)-4-heptenal (biscuit, cream).
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Egg + buttertop 17% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together118,967 recipes
Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).
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Egg + milktop 18% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked 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 as they cook, forming the body of the dish.
- Milk
- Dilutes the egg proteins slightly, keeping the curds softer and more tender.
- Butter
- Adds fat for richness and helps keep the eggs from sticking and drying out.
The step that matters
Cook until it thickens. Eggs set quickly over heat and keep cooking after removal from the pan. Stopping while the curds are still soft and glossy keeps them tender rather than dry and 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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