Why it works: Vinegar and mustard 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 ↓
Prepare Stuffed Eggs
Ingredients
Directions
Prepare
Cut the hard-cooked eggs in half and carefully remove the yolks.
Make the filling
Mash the yolks and mix in vinegar, salt, mustard, paprika, and melted butter until moldable.
Shape the mixture into balls and refill the egg whites.
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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Vinegar + mustardtop 7% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together14,067 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
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Egg + buttertop 17% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together118,967 recipes
Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).
-
Mustard + buttertop 22% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together8,003 recipes
Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).
-
Vinegar + buttertop 23% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together13,513 recipes
Shared aroma: isoamyl acetate (banana, pear).
-
Egg + mustardtop 28% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together9,210 recipes
Shared aroma: (e)-2-octenal (fatty, green).
Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs
What each ingredient does
- Egg yolks
- Provide the rich base that the seasonings are mashed into, giving the filling its body.
- Vinegar
- Adds a sharp acidity that brightens the richness of the yolks.
- Mustard
- Adds pungent flavor and some emulsifying help to the yolk mixture.
- Melted butter
- Adds fat that makes the filling smooth and easy to shape.
The step that matters
Mashing the yolks with melted butter until moldable. Yolks and fat must be mashed thoroughly so the filling becomes smooth and holds its shape. Under-mashed yolks leave lumps, while melted butter added too hot or too cold can make the mixture greasy or stiff.
Swap the mustard
How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (egg, vinegar, butter):
- Cucumberfits about as well
- Shallotfits about as well
- Mustardthe original
- Chivefits about as well
Fit is the average pairing score against egg, vinegar, butter. 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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