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To Boil Eggs

Side dish of boiled egg halves filled with mixture of yolk, smoked tongue or ham, butter or vinegar, seasoned with pepper, salt, mustard.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
By Vehling, Joseph Dommers, 1879-1950. fmo · From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 7 ingredients
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Why it works: Vinegar and mustard are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 7% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 14,067 recipes. Both carry isobutyraldehyde, which smells malty, green. The science ↓

To Boil Eggs

twelve hard-boiled eggs

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the eggs

  1. Bring water to a boil.

  2. Drop eggs into boiling water and let them remain three minutes if you want whites congealed, otherwise a shorter time.

  3. Place silver spoons used for eating eggs into water immediately.

  4. Take twelve hard-boiled eggs, peel shells, cut eggs in equal halves, cutting off a little piece from one end to enable them to stand alone.

Make the filling

  1. Pulverize yolks and finely chop some smoked tongue or old lean ham.

  2. Mix together and moisten slightly with a little fresh butter or vinegar, season with black pepper, salt, and mustard to taste.

Fill and serve

  1. Fill the cups or empty whites with this mixture, pressing down and smoothing nicely.

  2. Arrange them on a dish, putting two halves together and standing them upright, so as to look like whole eggs.

Nutrition, whole recipe (rough)

90Calories
7 gProtein
6 gFat
2 gCarbs
What these numbers assume: 5 portions
IngredientPortion assumedkcal
Egg1 large egg (50g)78
Black Pepper1 tsp ground (2.3g)6
Vinegar1 tbsp (15ml) distilled3
Mustard1 tsp (5g) yellow3
Salt1 tsp (6g)0

One typical portion per ingredient; the recipe's quantities are not counted. A rough guide only, not for medical or dietary planning.

By Vehling, Joseph Dommers, 1879-1950. fmo. 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. See the original page.

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. Vinegar + mustardtop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together14,067 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  2. Pepper + mustardtop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together15,430 recipes

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

  3. Vinegar + peppertop 14% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together27,814 recipes

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

  4. Egg + mustardtop 28% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together9,210 recipes

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

  5. Egg + vinegartop 33% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together12,922 recipes

    Shared aroma: acetic acid (sour, vinegar).

Egg and vinegar barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 12,922 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

What each ingredient does

Eggs
Whites form the shell-like cups and yolks become the creamy filling.
Fresh butter (in the method)
Adds fat and moisture so the yolk filling stays soft and spreadable.
Vinegar
Adds a sharp note and moisture to balance the rich yolk filling.
Mustard
Adds sharpness that cuts through the richness of the yolks.

The step that matters

Cutting off a little piece from one end. A small flat cut lets each half stand upright on the dish. Cutting too much exposes the filling, while too little leaves the halves tipping over.

Swap the mustard

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (egg, vinegar, pepper):

  1. Capsicumfits better
  2. Mustardthe original
  3. Cucumberfits about as well
  4. Cabbagefits less well

Fit is the average pairing score against egg, vinegar, 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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