Why it works: Lime and lemon match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 1,289 recipes. Both carry beta-phellandrene, which smells minty, terpene. The science ↓
To Preserve Eggs
Ingredients
Directions
Make the preserving liquid
In a large vessel, combine quick-lime and coarse sea salt.
Slake the mixture with 1 gallon of boiling water until it thickens.
Once cool, pour off the clear liquid on top.
Preserve the eggs
Drain this liquid and pour it over the eggs, ensuring they are fully submerged.
Use a stone jar that holds about 6 quarts for best results.
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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Lime + lemontop 1% of all pairsSmell alikestrongCooked together1,289 recipes
Shared aroma: beta-phellandrene (minty, terpene).
Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs
What each ingredient does
- Quick-lime
- Reacts with water to form an alkaline liquid that helps set and preserve the eggs.
- Coarse sea salt
- Adds salinity to the preserving liquid, helping preserve the eggs.
The step that matters
Slake the mixture with boiling water until it thickens. Quick-lime reacts strongly and heats up when water is added, so the water must be poured in carefully and the mixture allowed to settle. Getting this reaction right produces the alkaline liquid the eggs depend on.
“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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