Why it works: Egg and cream cheese are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 22% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 2,549 recipes. Both carry 1-octen-3-ol, which smells mushroom, earthy. The science ↓
Deviled Eggs with Cheese
Ingredients
Directions
Prepare the eggs
Boil the eggs until hard, then cool and peel them.
Cut the eggs in half and remove the yolks.
Make the filling
In a bowl, mash the yolks with the cream cheese until smooth, then mix in a little salt and pepper to taste.
Fill and heat
Fill the egg whites with the yolk and cheese mixture.
Cook over low heat, stirring constantly until the cheese melts and the eggs are heated through.
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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Egg + cream cheesetop 22% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together2,549 recipes
Shared aroma: 1-octen-3-ol (mushroom, earthy).
Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs
What each ingredient does
- Eggs
- Yolks form the rich, creamy base of the filling, while the whites hold it.
- Cream cheese
- Adds creaminess, moisture and a mild tang, and helps the yolks blend smooth.
The step that matters
Heating the filling over low heat while stirring constantly. Gentle, constant heat melts the cheese evenly and keeps it smooth. High heat can overheat the proteins in the cheese and eggs, causing the filling to turn grainy or separate.
“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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