Why it works: Mace and egg are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 35% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 7,587 recipes. The science ↓
Forced Eggs for Garnishing Salad
Ingredients
Directions
Prepare the filling
Pound and press through the back of a hair-sieve the flesh of three very fine anchovies, or of four moderate-sized anchovies, freed from the bones and skin.
Boil six fresh eggs for twelve minutes.
When the eggs are perfectly cold, halve them lengthwise.
Take out the yolks.
Pound the yolks to a paste with a third of their volume of fresh butter.
Make the filling and fill the eggs
Add the anchovy flesh, a quarter teaspoonful of mace, and as much cayenne as will season the mixture well.
Beat these together thoroughly.
Fill the whites of the eggs neatly with the mixture.
Optionally, add a morsel of garlic, or a portion of anchovy-butter or potted ham, to improve the preparation.
Nutrition, whole recipe (rough)
Counts 2 of 3 ingredients. The other 1 aren't in our nutrition table and add nothing above, so the real totals are higher.
What these numbers assume: 2 portions
| Ingredient | Portion assumed | kcal |
|---|---|---|
| Eggs | 1 large egg (50g) | 78 |
| Cayenne | 1 tsp (1.8g) | 6 |
| Mace | not in our table | 0 |
One typical portion per ingredient; the recipe's quantities are not counted. A rough guide only, not for medical or dietary planning.
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.
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Mace + eggtop 35% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together7,587 recipes
Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs
What each ingredient does
- Eggs
- The whites set into a firm shell around the rich filling and hold it in shape.
- Anchovies
- Add a salty, savoury depth that seasons the yolk filling.
- Butter (in the method)
- Enriches the pounded yolks, giving the filling a smooth, moist texture.
- Egg yolks
- Form the base of the filling, bound into a paste with butter.
The step that matters
Boil the eggs for twelve minutes and let them cool fully before halving. Eggs boiled for twelve minutes have fully set yolks that crumble cleanly when pounded. Halving them while still warm can tear the delicate whites and leave the yolks soft and hard to handle.
“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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