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Deviled Eggs

Deviled eggs are hard‑boiled eggs filled with a seasoned yolk mixture.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 6 ingredients
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Why it works: Mustard and cabbage match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 3% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 1,645 recipes. Both carry 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine, which smells earthy, pea. The science ↓

Deviled Eggs

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the eggs

  1. Boil the eggs for 20 minutes.

  2. Transfer the eggs to cold water and peel them.

  3. Cut the eggs in half and slice a little off one end so they stand upright.

Make and serve

  1. Remove the yolks and mash them into a smooth paste with melted butter, cayenne pepper, mustard, and vinegar.

  2. Fill the hollow in the egg whites with the yolk mixture.

  3. Serve on a bed of sliced white cabbage or use as a garnish for meats.

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.

  1. Mustard + cabbagetop 3% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together1,645 recipes

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

  2. Pepper + cabbagetop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together4,081 recipes

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

  3. Mustard + vinegartop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together14,067 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

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

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

  5. Vinegar + cabbagetop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together2,924 recipes

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

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

What each ingredient does

Eggs
Provide the white shells for the filling and the yolks that form the smooth paste.
Melted butter
Adds fat and richness, making the yolk mixture smooth and creamy.
Mustard
Adds sharp flavour that balances the richness of the yolks and butter.
Vinegar
Adds acidity that brightens the flavour of the rich yolk filling.
Cayenne pepper
Adds gentle heat and aroma to the yolk filling.

The step that matters

Transfer the eggs to cold water and peel them. Plunging boiled eggs into cold water stops the cooking and contracts the white away from the shell, making peeling easier and reducing torn whites.

Swap the cabbage

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

  1. Horseradishfits better
  2. Shallotfits better
  3. Capsicumfits better
  4. Cabbagethe original

Fit is the average pairing score against egg, butter, pepper, mustard, vinegar. 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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