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Stuffed Eggs

A baked dish of boiled eggs filled with a ham and yolk mixture, topped with sauce, crumbs, and cheese.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 11 ingredients
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Why it works: Celery and parsley match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 6,810 recipes. Both carry 4'-methylacetophenone, which smells bitter almond. The science ↓

Stuffed Eggs

Ingredients

Directions

The book gives no oven temperature. The 400°F (200°C) in the steps was added when the recipe was transcribed, as a starting point.

Boil and shell

  1. Boil the eggs for 20 minutes.

  2. Plunge them into cold water for 1 minute.

  3. Remove the shells and cut the eggs lengthwise.

  4. Scoop out the yolks carefully and place the whites together.

Make and fill

  1. Mash the yolks and mix with ham, onion juice, melted butter, cayenne, celery salt, and parsley.

  2. Fill the egg whites with the yolk mixture and press the halves together.

  3. Spread the remaining mixture on a buttered dish and place the eggs on top.

Bake

  1. Cover with thin white sauce, sprinkle with buttered cracker crumbs and cheese.

  2. Bake at 400°F (200°C) until light brown.

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. Celery + parsleytop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together6,810 recipes

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

  2. Pepper + parsleytop 2% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together34,122 recipes

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

  3. Pepper + celerytop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together16,012 recipes

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

  4. Onion + celerytop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together18,518 recipes

    Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).

  5. Butter + cheesetop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together7,962 recipes

    Shared aroma: delta-dodecalactone (sweet, creamy).

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

What each ingredient does

Eggs
Egg whites set to hold the filling, and the yolks form the rich, creamy filling.
Ham
Adds savoury, salty flavour to the yolk mixture.
Butter
Adds richness and moisture to the yolk filling and helps the topping brown.
White sauce
Adds moisture and a smooth, creamy coating over the eggs as they bake.
Cracker crumbs
Form a crisp, golden-brown topping in the oven.
Cheese
Melts and browns on top, adding savoury flavour.

The step that matters

Plunge the boiled eggs into cold water. Cold water stops the cooking right away, so the yolks stay tender and do not develop a dull grey-green ring. Cooling also makes the shells easier to remove cleanly.

Swap the onion

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (egg, ham, butter, pepper, celery, parsley, cheese):

  1. Carrotfits better
  2. Mustardfits better
  3. Capsicumfits better
  4. Onionthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against egg, ham, butter, pepper, celery, parsley, cheese. 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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