Name: Columbus Eggs-a Nice Side Dish
Ingredients: 12 hard-boiled eggs; smoked tongue or old lean ham, chopped fine; fresh butter or vinegar, to moisten; black pepper, to taste; coarse sea salt, to taste; mustard, to taste

Why it works: Pepper and mustard are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 9% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 15,430 recipes. Both carry 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine, which smells earthy, pea. The science ↓

Columbus Eggs-a Nice Side Dish

Ingredients

12 hard-boiled eggs
smoked tongue or old lean ham, chopped fine
fresh butter or vinegar, to moisten
black pepper, to taste
coarse sea salt, to taste
mustard, to taste

Directions

Prepare the eggs

Peel the hard-boiled eggs and cut them in half, trimming a small piece from one end to help them stand.
Pulverize the yolks and mix with the chopped smoked tongue or ham.

Fill and serve

Moisten the mixture slightly with fresh butter or vinegar and season with black pepper, coarse sea salt, and mustard to taste.
Fill the empty egg whites with the mixture, pressing down and smoothing it nicely.
Arrange the filled halves on a dish, standing them upright to resemble whole eggs.

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.

Pepper + mustardtop 9% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together15,430 recipes

Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).
Ham + mustardtop 14% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked together747 recipes

Shared aroma: 2-acetyl-1-pyrroline (popcorn, roasted).
Ham + buttertop 16% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together5,475 recipes

Shared aroma: trans-2-decenal (waxy, orange).
Egg + hamtop 17% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together4,526 recipes

Shared aroma: 2,4-decadienal (seaweed).
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

Hard-boiled eggs: Provide the whites that hold the filling and the yolks that form the creamy base.
Smoked tongue or old lean ham: Adds savoury, smoky flavour and a firm texture that contrasts with the yolks.
Fresh butter or vinegar: Adds moisture and richness to the yolk mixture, keeping it soft and spreadable.