Why it works: Egg and ham match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 8% of all ingredient pairs, and 4,516 recipes mention both. Both carry 2-octenal, which smells fatty, green. The science ↓
The recipe
Ingredients
Contains: egg, milk (auto-detected from the ingredients and method; we can miss things, so check labels)
Directions
The book says “a very hot oven”. The 400°F (200°C) in the steps is the modern equivalent, not the book's own figure.
Prepare the filling
Cut the hard‑boiled eggs in half lengthwise and remove the yolks.
Mix the yolks with the cooked game, ham, and mushrooms to create a salpicon.
Fill the egg halves with the salpicon and top with minced champignons.
Beat the yolks through a coarse sieve over the filled eggs.
Bake and serve
Place the eggs on a baking sheet, sprinkle with grated cheese and drizzle with oiled butter.
Bake in a very hot oven at 400 °F (200 °C) for 5 minutes.
Serve with hot tomato sauce or Périgord sauce around the base of the dish.
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 aroma chemistry they share, and how many recipes mention both.
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Egg + hamtop 8% of all pairsAroma overlapstrongMentioned together4,516 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-octenal (fatty, green).
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Mushroom + buttertop 3% of all pairsAroma overlapstrongMentioned together12,516 recipes
Shared aroma: trans-2-decenal (waxy, orange).
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Cheese + buttertop 3% of all pairsAroma overlapstrongMentioned together7,955 recipes
Shared aroma: delta-dodecalactone (sweet, creamy).
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Mushroom + tomatotop 4% of all pairsAroma overlapstrongMentioned together2,718 recipes
Shared aroma: trans,trans-2,4-nonadienal (fatty, green).
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Mushroom + cheesetop 4% of all pairsAroma overlapstrongMentioned together1,014 recipes
Shared aroma: ethyl octanoate (fruity).
Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs
What each ingredient does
- Hard-boiled eggs
- Provide the base structure and the yolk mixture that forms the filling.
- Cooked game
- Adds savoury meaty body and flavour to the salpicon filling.
- Ham
- Adds salty, savoury flavour and texture to the filling.
- Mushrooms
- Add earthy aroma and moisture to the salpicon filling.
- Grated cheese
- Melts and browns on top, adding richness and golden colour.
- Oiled butter
- Adds fat and moisture, helping the top brown in the oven.
The step that matters
Bake in a very hot oven for 5 minutes. A short, very hot bake is needed to melt the cheese and brown the top without overheating the egg whites and filling. Leaving it too long can dry the filling and toughen the eggs.
Flavor stand-ins for the tomato
How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (egg, ham, mushroom, cheese, butter):
- Asparagusbetter flavor fit
- Potatoabout as good a flavor fit
- Capsicumabout as good a flavor fit
- Tomatothe original
Fit is the average pairing score against egg, ham, mushroom, cheese, butter. Candidates are from the same food group and used in at least 100 recipes. This compares flavor only: it does not check the job the ingredient does in the dish (bulk, moisture, acidity, structure).
“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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