Dainty and Delicate Ways of Serving Hard-boiled Eggs

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. Ham + breadtop 7% of all pairs
   Smell alikemoderate
   Cooked together2,536 recipes

   Shared aroma: 2-acetyl-1-pyrroline (popcorn, roasted).

2. Milk + breadtop 11% of all pairs
   Smell alikemoderate
   Cooked together11,466 recipes

   Shared aroma: 2-undecenal (sweet).

3. Bread + eggtop 13% of all pairs
   Smell alikemoderate
   Cooked together22,662 recipes

   Shared aroma: (e)-2-octenal (fatty, green).

4. Ham + mustardtop 14% of all pairs
   Smell alikelow
   Cooked together747 recipes

   Shared aroma: 2-acetyl-1-pyrroline (popcorn, roasted).

5. Bread + mustardtop 16% of all pairs
   Smell alikemoderate
   Cooked together1,484 recipes

   Shared aroma: 2-acetyl-1-pyrroline (popcorn, roasted).

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

What each ingredient does

Raw egg

Binds the ham, milk and crumbs into a paste that holds onto the eggs.

Bread crumbs

Absorb the milk and add body so the coating thickens into a workable paste.

Milk

Moistens the crumbs and ham so the paste spreads smoothly over the eggs.

Cooked ham

Provides the savory flavor and bulk of the coating.

Hard-boiled eggs

Form the core of the dish, wrapped in the coating.

The step that matters

Swap the mustard

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (ham, milk, bread, egg):

1. Asparagusfits better
2. Potatofits better
3. Capsicumfits better
4. Mustardthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against ham, milk, bread, egg. Candidates are from the same food group and used in at least 100 recipes.