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Deviled Eggs

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 vinegar 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 ↓

Deviled Eggs

Ingredients

Directions

Boil and cool

  1. Boil the eggs until hard.

  2. Cool the eggs.

  3. Remove the yolks.

Make the filling

  1. Mash the yolks finely with a spoon.

  2. Season the yolks with salt, pepper, mustard, and vinegar.

  3. Add enough melted butter or oil to create a smooth paste.

Fill and serve

  1. Cut the egg whites in half.

  2. Fill them with the yolk mixture.

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 + vinegartop 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. Pepper + vinegartop 14% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together27,814 recipes

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

  4. Egg + buttertop 17% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together118,967 recipes

    Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).

  5. Pepper + buttertop 21% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together85,593 recipes

    Shared aroma: trans-2-nonenal (cardboard, fatty).

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

What each ingredient does

Eggs
Provide the whites that hold the filling and the yolks that form the base of the filling.
Melted butter or oil
Adds fat and moisture, turning mashed yolks into a smooth, spreadable paste.
Mustard
Adds sharp, pungent flavor that balances the richness of the yolks.
Vinegar
Adds acidity that brightens the rich, creamy yolk filling.

The step that matters

Mash the yolks finely before adding fat. Yolks that are mashed finely break down into a smooth base, so the added melted butter or oil can emulsify evenly into a creamy paste. Lumpy yolks stay grainy and the filling can separate or feel uneven.

Swap the mustard

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

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

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