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Deviled Eggs

Deviled eggs are hard‑boiled eggs filled with a mustard, celery, butter, and vinegar mixture.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 5 ingredients
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Why it works: Mustard and celery are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 2% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 4,169 recipes. Both carry guaiacol, which smells smoky, sweet. The science ↓

Deviled Eggs

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the eggs

  1. Boil the eggs, then remove the shells and cut them in half.

  2. Take out the yolks and mix them with mustard, powdered celery, butter, and vinegar.

  3. Cut a thin slice from the end of each egg white so they sit firmly on the platter.

Fill and serve

  1. Fill each egg white with the yolk mixture.

  2. Garnish with celery, lettuce, or nasturtium leaves.

  3. Serve with thin slices of bread and butter.

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 + celerytop 2% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together4,169 recipes

    Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).

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

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  3. Celery + vinegartop 17% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together5,627 recipes

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

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

    Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).

  5. Mustard + buttertop 22% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together8,003 recipes

    Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).

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

What each ingredient does

Eggs
Whites provide the structure that holds the filling, and yolks supply the rich base of the mixture.
Butter
Adds fat and richness, giving the yolk filling a smooth, creamy texture.
Vinegar
Adds acidity that brightens the rich yolk filling and balances its fat.
Mustard
Adds sharp, pungent flavour that cuts through the richness of the yolks.

The step that matters

Cut a thin slice from the end of each egg white. The slice gives each half a flat base so it sits firmly on the platter instead of rolling. Cutting only a thin slice keeps the white intact to hold the filling.

Swap the celery

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

  1. Tarragonfits better
  2. Capersfits better
  3. Dillfits better
  4. Celerythe original

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