Why it works: Butter and sauce are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 15% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 15,338 recipes. Both carry ethanol, which smells alcoholic, ethereal. The science ↓
Boiled Eggs
Ingredients
Directions
Pour boiling water over the eggs and keep just below boiling for 8 minutes for soft or 20 minutes for hard boiled.
Place eggs in cold water; when boiling, they are done with soft whites.
Drop eggs into boiling water; cook for 3 minutes for soft, 5 minutes for hard, and 10-30 minutes for very hard.
Slice the eggs thinly, remove yolks, toss yolks into mound shape in egg sauce, and season. Arrange whites on lettuce or parsley leaves.
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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Butter + saucetop 15% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together15,338 recipes
Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).
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Egg + buttertop 17% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together118,967 recipes
Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).
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Sauce + lettucetop 20% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together1,019 recipes
Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).
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Butter + lettucetop 25% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together2,287 recipes
Shared aroma: trans-2-hexenal (green, leafy).
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Egg + lettucetop 30% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together3,301 recipes
Shared aroma: nonanal (fat, citrus).
Butter and sauce barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 15,338 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
Swap the lettuce
How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (egg, butter, sauce):
- Shallotfits better
- Asparagusfits better
- Chivefits better
- Lettucethe original
Fit is the average pairing score against egg, butter, sauce. Candidates are from the same food group and used in at least 100 recipes.
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