Why it works: Egg and anchovy are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 12% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 2,330 recipes. Both carry decanal, which smells soap, orange peel. The science ↓
Cold Eggs a LA Neva
Ingredients
Directions
Prepare the eggs
Cut off the ends of the hard-boiled eggs.
Surround the tops and bases with anchovy fillets.
Place a little caviare halfway along each egg.
Carefully empty the eggs using a scraper.
Garnish and serve
Garnish the eggs with truffle mayonnaise.
Place each egg in an artichoke bottom, garnished with finely-chopped jelly.
Arrange the eggs in a circle on a dish with chopped jelly.
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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Egg + anchovytop 12% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together2,330 recipes
Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).
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Anchovy + truffletop 16% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together241 recipes
Shared aroma: 1-octen-3-ol (mushroom, earthy).
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Egg + truffletop 18% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together1,604 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-octenal (fatty, green).
Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs
What each ingredient does
- Eggs
- The hollowed hard-boiled whites form the shell that holds the filling.
- Anchovy fillets
- Add a salty, savoury flavour that contrasts with the rich egg.
- Caviare
- Adds briny, salty flavour and a glossy accent to each egg.
- Truffle mayonnaise
- Adds richness and moisture, coating the egg with fat for a smooth finish.
- Finely-chopped jelly
- Sets firm when cold, giving a glossy, slightly wobbly base under each egg.
The step that matters
Carefully empty the eggs using a scraper. The hard-boiled white is delicate and tears easily. Lifting the yolk out gently with a scraper keeps the white shell intact so it can hold the filling neatly.
“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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