Why it works: Tarragon and olive match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 9% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 1,323 recipes. Both carry eucalyptol, which smells eucalyptus, herbal. The science ↓
Mirabeau Eggs
Ingredients
Directions
Break the eggs and cook them.
Surround each yolk with anchovy fillets.
Garnish each yolk with a spray of par-boiled tarragon leaves.
Place a large olive stuffed with tarragon butter on either side of the yolks.
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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Tarragon + olivetop 9% of all pairsSmell alikestrongCooked together1,323 recipes
Shared aroma: eucalyptol (eucalyptus, herbal).
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Anchovy + olivetop 12% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together880 recipes
Shared aroma: hexanol (green, fruity).
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Egg + anchovytop 12% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together2,330 recipes
Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).
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Anchovy + buttertop 13% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together3,697 recipes
Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).
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Olive + buttertop 15% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together11,887 recipes
Shared aroma: 3-hexenal (apple, fruity).
Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs
Swap the tarragon
How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (egg, anchovy, olive, butter):
- Capersfits better
- Parsleyfits better
- Thymefits about as well
- Tarragonthe original
Fit is the average pairing score against egg, anchovy, olive, butter. Candidates are from the same food group and used in at least 100 recipes.
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