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Stuffed Eggs

Hard-boiled eggs filled with a mustard and vinegar yolk mixture.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 7 ingredients
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Why it works: Mustard and vinegar are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 7% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 14,067 recipes. Both carry isobutyraldehyde, which smells malty, green. The science ↓

Stuffed Eggs

Ingredients

Directions

Boil the eggs

  1. Boil the eggs for 20 minutes.

  2. Immerse them in cold water for 2 minutes to prevent discoloration.

Prepare the filling

  1. Remove the shells and cut the eggs in half lengthwise.

  2. Carefully remove the yolks without breaking the whites.

  3. Mash the yolks in a bowl, removing any hard parts.

  4. Add the butter, sweet cream, mustard, vinegar, pepper, and salt; mix well.

  5. If the mixture is too dry, add a little more cream.

Assemble

  1. Fill the egg whites with the yolk mixture and reassemble the halves using toothpicks.

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. Mustard + vinegartop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together14,067 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  2. Butter + creamtop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together41,516 recipes

    Shared aroma: delta-dodecalactone (sweet, creamy).

  3. Mustard + peppertop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together15,430 recipes

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

  4. Vinegar + peppertop 14% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together27,814 recipes

    Shared aroma: 4'-methylacetophenone (bitter almond).

  5. Egg + buttertop 17% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together118,967 recipes

    Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).

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

What each ingredient does

Eggs
Provide the structure of the whites and the rich, creamy yolks that form the filling.
Butter
Adds fat and richness, making the mashed yolk filling smooth and creamy.
Sweet cream
Adds moisture and softness so the mashed yolk filling holds together smoothly.
Mustard
Adds sharp, tangy flavor that balances the richness of the yolks.
Vinegar
Adds acidity that brightens the flavor of the rich yolk filling.

The step that matters

Immerse the eggs in cold water. Chilling the boiled eggs quickly stops the cooking and helps prevent a greenish ring forming around the yolks, which is caused by sulfur and iron reacting when eggs overcook. Peeling is also easier when the shells are cool.

Swap the mustard

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

  1. Capsicumfits about as well
  2. Potatofits about as well
  3. Mustardthe original
  4. Spinachfits about as well

Fit is the average pairing score against egg, butter, cream, vinegar, 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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