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Eggs in Ramakin Cases

Hard‑boiled eggs filled with a seasoned yolk mixture of butter, potted meat, parsley, ketchup, and curry powder, served in ramekins.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 9 ingredients
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Why it works: Parsley and pepper match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 2% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 34,122 recipes. Both carry 4'-methylacetophenone, which smells bitter almond. The science ↓

Eggs in Ramakin Cases

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the eggs

  1. Remove the pointed end from the hard-boiled eggs.

  2. Slice the other end to make them stand evenly.

  3. Carefully remove the yolks through a small hole at the pointed end without breaking the whites.

Make the filling

  1. In a bowl, mash the yolks with butter.

  2. Mix in potted meat, parsley, tomato ketchup, salt, pepper, and curry powder.

  3. Rub the mixture through a strainer onto a plate.

  4. Fill the egg whites with the yolk mixture, letting it stand above the whites.

Serve

  1. Place each filled egg in a ramekin case.

  2. Decorate with cucumber pieces brushed with warm butter, or serve plain.

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. Parsley + peppertop 2% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together34,122 recipes

    Shared aroma: 4'-methylacetophenone (bitter almond).

  2. Tomato + cucumbertop 4% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together2,405 recipes

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

  3. Parsley + cucumbertop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together1,564 recipes

    Shared aroma: trans-2-hexenal (green, leafy).

  4. Tomato + peppertop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together17,923 recipes

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

  5. Parsley + tomatotop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together5,398 recipes

    Shared aroma: 4'-methylacetophenone (bitter almond).

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

What each ingredient does

Hard-boiled eggs
Provide the whites that hold the filling and the yolks that form it.
Butter
Adds richness and a smooth, spreadable texture to the mashed yolks.
Potted meat
Adds savoury depth and a meaty flavour to the yolk filling.
Tomato ketchup
Adds sweetness and acidity that balance the rich yolks.

The step that matters

Rub the mixture through a strainer. Pressing the yolks through a strainer breaks up lumps and gives the filling a fine, smooth texture. Mashing alone usually leaves grainy pieces that make the filling feel coarse and less pleasant to pipe or spoon into the whites.

Swap the cucumber

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

  1. Capsicumfits better
  2. Carrotfits better
  3. Shallotfits better
  4. Cucumberthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against egg, butter, meat, parsley, tomato, ketchup, pepper. 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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