Name: Stuffed Eggs
Ingredients: 6 eggs; 1 teaspoon soft butter; deviled ham (equal to the amount of egg yolks); pepper to taste; mustard to taste; a little vinegar; buttered bread crumbs; thin white sauce

Why it works: Butter and bread are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 7% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 27,232 recipes. Both carry delta-decalactone, which smells sweet, creamy. The science ↓

Stuffed Eggs

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the eggs

Boil the eggs for 20 minutes, then remove the shells and cut them lengthwise.
Remove the yolks and keep the whites separate.

Fill and assemble

Mash the yolks and mix in the soft butter, deviled ham, pepper, mustard, and vinegar.
Fill the egg whites with the yolk mixture and press the halves together.
Spread the remaining yolks on a shallow dish and place the stuffed eggs on top.

Bake and serve

Cover with a thin white sauce and sprinkle with buttered bread crumbs.
Bake until golden brown.

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.

Butter + breadtop 7% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together27,232 recipes

Shared aroma: delta-decalactone (sweet, creamy).
Ham + breadtop 7% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together2,536 recipes

Shared aroma: 2-acetyl-1-pyrroline (popcorn, roasted).
Mustard + vinegartop 7% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together14,067 recipes

Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
Pepper + mustardtop 9% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together15,430 recipes

Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).
Mustard + saucetop 13% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together2,120 recipes

Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).

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 stuffing.
Deviled ham: Adds savory flavor and moisture to the mashed yolk filling.
Soft butter: Adds richness and a smooth, spreadable texture to the yolk mixture.
Thin white sauce: Keeps the eggs moist and adds a creamy coating under the crumbs.
Buttered bread crumbs: Form a crisp topping that browns in the oven.

Swap the mustard

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

Capsicumfits about as well
Mustardthe original
Shallotfits about as well
Asparagusfits less well

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