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Eggs Pickled

Hard-boiled eggs are preserved in a spiced vinegar solution.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 6 ingredients
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Why it works: Cinnamon and allspice match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 5,536 recipes. Both carry estragole, which smells anise, licorice. The science ↓

Eggs Pickled

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. Boil the eggs until very hard and remove the shells.

  2. Tie the spices in a white muslin bag and place it in the cold water.

  3. Boil the water, adding more if it reduces, to maintain ½ pint.

Pickle the eggs

  1. Add the vinegar to the water and pour the mixture over the eggs.

  2. Add as many eggs as the mixture will cover; reuse the mixture for another batch when needed.

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. Cinnamon + allspicetop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together5,536 recipes

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

  2. Allspice + macetop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together3,189 recipes

    Shared aroma: methyleugenol (clove, spice).

  3. Cinnamon + macetop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together3,611 recipes

    Shared aroma: methyleugenol (clove, spice).

  4. Vinegar + allspicetop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together4,548 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-methylbutyl acetate (fruit).

  5. Vinegar + cinnamontop 19% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together5,187 recipes

    Shared aroma: 4-ethyl-2-methoxyphenol (smoky, clove).

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

What each ingredient does

Strong vinegar
Provides the sharp acidity that flavours the eggs and keeps them tangy.
Hard-boiled eggs
Form the body of the pickle and take on the flavour of the spiced vinegar.
Cinnamon
Adds warm, sweet aroma to the pickling liquid.
Allspice
Adds a warm, peppery aroma to the pickling liquid.
Mace
Adds a delicate, warm aroma to the pickling liquid.

The step that matters

Boil the eggs until very hard. Eggs that are not fully hard-boiled have soft, runny yolks and can break or go slimy in the vinegar. Fully set whites and yolks hold their shape and absorb the pickling liquid evenly.

Swap the mace

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

  1. Nutmegfits better
  2. Clovefits better
  3. Tarragonfits better
  4. Macethe original

Fit is the average pairing score against vinegar, cinnamon, allspice, egg. 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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