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Eggs, Devilled

Hard‑boiled eggs filled with a seasoned yolk mixture and garnished with cress and lettuce.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 6 ingredients
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Why it works: Anchovy and sauce are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 2% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 2,057 recipes. Both carry ethanol, which smells alcoholic, ethereal. The science ↓

Eggs, Devilled

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the filling

  1. Cut the hard-boiled eggs in half and remove the yolks without breaking the whites.

  2. Mix the yolks with anchovy sauce, cayenne pepper, and salt.

Assemble and serve

  1. Fill the egg white halves with the yolk mixture.

  2. Trim the pointed tip of the egg whites and arrange them on a dish.

  3. Garnish with small cress and finely-cut lettuce.

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. Anchovy + saucetop 2% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together2,057 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).

  2. Pepper + lettucetop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together4,037 recipes

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

  3. Egg + anchovytop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together2,330 recipes

    Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).

  4. Anchovy + lettucetop 14% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together185 recipes

    Shared aroma: nonanal (fat, citrus).

  5. Anchovy + peppertop 17% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together3,232 recipes

    Shared aroma: eucalyptol (eucalyptus, herbal).

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

What each ingredient does

Eggs
The whites provide the structure that holds the filling, and the yolks supply richness and body.
Anchovy sauce
Adds salty, savory depth that seasons the yolk filling.

The step that matters

Remove the yolks without breaking the whites. Egg whites are delicate and tear easily when cooked eggs are cut and emptied. An intact white forms a neat cup that holds the filling and keeps the presentation clean.

Swap the lettuce

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

  1. Capsicumfits better
  2. Spinachfits better
  3. Asparagusfits better
  4. Lettucethe original

Fit is the average pairing score against egg, anchovy, sauce, pepper. 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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