Why it works: Egg and pepper are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 33% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 50,580 recipes. Both carry 2-nonenal, which smells fatty, green. The science ↓
Poached Eggs
Ingredients
Directions
The book gives no cooking times; the times in the steps were added in transcription, so check for doneness rather than trusting the clock.
Prepare
Pour boiling water into a clean cooking utensil and add salt.
Place the utensil on the stove to boil.
Break a fresh egg into a small dish.
Poach and serve
When the water boils, gently slide the egg into it.
Cook until the egg white is firm, about 2 minutes.
Lift the egg out with a skimmer and place it on hot toast.
Sprinkle with salt and pepper, and serve hot.
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 + peppertop 33% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together50,580 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).
Egg and pepper barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 50,580 recipes: they work on texture and structure more than aroma.
Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs
What each ingredient does
- Eggs
- Egg white sets in hot water while the yolk stays soft, giving the poached egg its shape.
- Salt
- Seasons the poaching water and the finished egg, adding flavour.
The step that matters
Gently slide the egg into the water. Egg white proteins set when heated, so a gentle entry and a steady simmer keep the white together around the yolk instead of scattering into loose strands.
“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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