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Stuffed Eggs

Stuffed eggs are 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 lettuce match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 1,356 recipes. Both carry 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine, which smells earthy, pea. The science ↓

Stuffed Eggs

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the eggs

  1. Boil the eggs for 30 minutes.

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

Make the filling

  1. In a bowl, mash the yolks with a fork until smooth.

  2. Mix in the mustard, vinegar, butter or olive oil, and salt.

  3. Fill the egg whites with the yolk mixture.

Serve

  1. Serve each half on a crisp lettuce leaf.

  2. For a picnic, press the halves together and wrap in oiled paper.

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 + lettucetop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together1,356 recipes

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

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

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  3. Mustard + hamtop 14% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together747 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-acetyl-1-pyrroline (popcorn, roasted).

  4. Vinegar + lettucetop 14% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together2,370 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  5. Butter + hamtop 16% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together5,475 recipes

    Shared aroma: trans-2-decenal (waxy, orange).

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

What each ingredient does

Eggs
Provide the yolks that are mashed into the creamy filling and the whites that hold it.
French mustard
Adds sharp flavour that balances the richness of the yolks.
Vinegar
Adds acidity that brightens the flavour of the filling.
Butter or olive oil
Adds fat that makes the yolk filling smooth and rich.

The step that matters

Mash the yolks until smooth. Yolks left in lumps give an uneven, grainy filling. Mashing them thoroughly before adding the other ingredients lets the fat and liquids blend evenly into a smooth texture.

Swap the lettuce

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

  1. Shallotfits better
  2. Horseradishfits better
  3. Chivefits about as well
  4. Lettucethe original

Fit is the average pairing score against egg, mustard, vinegar, butter, ham. 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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