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Savoury Eggs

Savory Eggs are hard‑boiled eggs filled with a ham, parsley, and butter mixture.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 8 ingredients
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Why it works: Parsley and pepper match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 2% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 34,122 recipes. Both carry 4'-methylacetophenone, which smells bitter almond. The science ↓

Savoury Eggs

Oven, in the book's wordsA hot oven

Ingredients

Directions

The book says “a hot oven”. The 400°F (200°C) in the steps is the modern equivalent, not the book's own figure.

Cook the eggs

  1. Place the eggs in a paper bag with 1 cup of water.

  2. Bake in a 400°F (200°C) oven for 15 minutes.

  3. Remove and drop the eggs into cold water.

Make the filling

  1. Once cold, shell the eggs and cut them in half lengthwise.

  2. Remove the yolks and mash them with minced ham, parsley, salt, pepper, and butter.

  3. Return the yolk mixture to the egg whites and press them together firmly.

Bake and finish

  1. Brush the tops with oiled butter, place in a greased bag, and bake for an additional 5 minutes.

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. Parsley + peppertop 2% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together34,122 recipes

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

  2. Parsley + buttertop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together28,563 recipes

    Shared aroma: trans-2-hexenal (green, leafy).

  3. Ham + buttertop 16% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together5,475 recipes

    Shared aroma: trans-2-decenal (waxy, orange).

  4. Egg + hamtop 17% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together4,526 recipes

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

  5. 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

Eggs
The yolks form the filling and the whites hold its shape.
Butter
Adds fat and richness, keeping the yolk filling smooth and moist.
Minced ham
Adds savory, salty flavor to the yolk filling.
Minced parsley
Adds fresh, herbal aroma to the filling.

The step that matters

Cool the eggs fully before shelling. Cooling firms the whites so they hold their shape and peel cleanly. Shelling while still warm tends to tear the whites and leave the halves misshapen.

“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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