Name: Stuffed Eggs
Ingredients: 6 hard-boiled eggs; 1 tablespoon olive oil; 2 tablespoons chopped meat; pepper to taste; ¼ teaspoon coarse sea salt; 1 teaspoon Worcestershire sauce; 1 teaspoon vinegar

Why it works: Olive and vinegar are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 10% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 12,297 recipes. Both carry isoamyl acetate, which smells banana, fruity. The science ↓

Stuffed Eggs

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the eggs

Boil the eggs until hard, then remove the shells and cut them in half.
Remove the yolks and mash them in a bowl.

Make the filling and serve

Add olive oil, chopped meat, pepper, salt, Worcestershire sauce, and vinegar to the mashed yolks. Mix well and fill the egg whites with this mixture.

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.

Olive + vinegartop 10% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together12,297 recipes

Shared aroma: isoamyl acetate (banana, fruity).
Olive + peppertop 11% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together30,263 recipes

Shared aroma: 2,4-decadienal (seaweed).
Pepper + vinegartop 14% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together27,814 recipes

Shared aroma: 4'-methylacetophenone (bitter almond).
Olive + meattop 17% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together1,485 recipes

Shared aroma: 2,4-decadienal (seaweed).
Meat + peppertop 19% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked together8,777 recipes

Shared aroma: 2,4-decadienal (seaweed).

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

What each ingredient does

Egg yolks: Mashed yolks form the creamy base that holds the filling together.
Olive oil: Adds fat that makes the mashed yolk filling smooth and rich.
Chopped meat: Provides savory bulk and flavor to the filling.
Worcestershire sauce: Adds savory, tangy depth that seasons the filling.
Vinegar: Adds acidity that brightens the rich yolk mixture.

“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.