Why it works: Egg and butter are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 17% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 118,967 recipes. Both carry decanal, which smells soap, orange peel. The science ↓
Poached Eggs on Toast
Ingredients
Directions
Prepare dry toast before cooking the eggs.
Bring water to a gentle simmer in a saucepan.
Crack each egg into a small bowl, then gently slide it into the simmering water.
Cook until the white is set but the yolk is still slightly runny.
Lift the egg out with a slotted spoon and trim any rough edges.
Place the poached egg on the prepared toast and serve immediately, passing melted butter if desired.
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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Egg + buttertop 17% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together118,967 recipes
Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).
Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs
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