Why it works: Celery and parsley match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 6,810 recipes. Both carry 4'-methylacetophenone, which smells bitter almond. The science ↓
Egg Salad
Ingredients
Directions
Prepare the eggs
Cut the hard-boiled eggs in half and remove the yolks, keeping the whites unbroken.
Make the filling
Rub the yolks until fine and smooth, then work in the butter and season with salt.
Add the finely chopped celery or lettuce and the mustard mixed with vinegar; combine into a smooth paste.
If the mixture is not moist enough, add more vinegar.
Fill and garnish
Fill the egg whites with the yolk mixture and garnish with parsley or celery tops.
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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Celery + parsleytop 1% of all pairsSmell alikestrongCooked together6,810 recipes
Shared aroma: 4'-methylacetophenone (bitter almond).
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Celery + mustardtop 2% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together4,169 recipes
Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).
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Mustard + vinegartop 7% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together14,067 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
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Mustard + parsleytop 8% of all pairsSmell alikestrongCooked together2,588 recipes
Shared aroma: trans-2-hexenal (green, leafy).
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Butter + parsleytop 15% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together28,563 recipes
Shared aroma: trans-2-hexenal (green, leafy).
Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs
What each ingredient does
- Egg yolks
- Their fat and emulsifying lecithin give the filling a rich, smooth, creamy body.
- Butter
- Adds fat that makes the yolk filling softer, smoother and richer in flavour.
- Mustard
- Adds sharp, pungent flavour that cuts through the richness of the yolks.
- Vinegar
- Adds acidity that brightens the flavour and helps loosen the paste to the right moistness.
The step that matters
Rub the yolks until fine and smooth. Breaking the yolks down thoroughly before adding butter and other ingredients helps them form an even emulsion. Lumps left behind feel grainy, and the filling may separate or seem dry.
Swap the celery
How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (egg, butter, mustard, vinegar, parsley):
- Tarragonfits better
- Capersfits better
- Dillfits better
- Celerythe original
Fit is the average pairing score against egg, butter, mustard, vinegar, parsley. 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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