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Deviled Eggs

Hard-boiled eggs filled with a seasoned yolk mixture containing ham, olive oil, mustard, salt, and pepper.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 5 ingredients
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Why it works: Olive and mustard match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 8% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 5,950 recipes. Both carry eucalyptol, which smells eucalyptus, herbal. The science ↓

Deviled Eggs

Oven, in the book's wordsA hot oven

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the eggs

  1. Boil the eggs for 15 minutes, then place them in cold water for 30 minutes.

  2. Remove the shells and cut the eggs in half lengthwise.

Make the filling

  1. In a bowl, mash the yolks into a smooth paste with the olive oil and mustard.

  2. Add the finely chopped ham, salt, and pepper; mix thoroughly.

Fill and serve

  1. Fill the hollowed egg whites with the yolk mixture.

  2. Serve on a bed of watercress or salad.

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. Olive + mustardtop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together5,950 recipes

    Shared aroma: eucalyptol (eucalyptus, herbal).

  2. Mustard + peppertop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together15,430 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).

  3. Olive + peppertop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together30,263 recipes

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

  4. Ham + mustardtop 14% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together747 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-acetyl-1-pyrroline (popcorn, roasted).

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

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

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

What each ingredient does

Eggs
Yolks form the creamy filling, while whites provide the edible shell for it.
Olive oil
Adds fat that makes the mashed yolk filling smooth and rich.
Mustard
Adds sharp acidity and aroma that balances the rich yolks.
Cold boiled ham
Adds salty, savory flavor and a firmer meaty texture to the filling.

The step that matters

Cooling the boiled eggs. Plunging boiled eggs into cold water for 30 minutes helps stop overcooking, which keeps yolks creamy and not chalky or grey-ringed, and makes the shells easier to remove cleanly.

Swap the mustard

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (egg, ham, olive, pepper):

  1. Capsicumfits better
  2. Tomatofits about as well
  3. Asparagusfits about as well
  4. Mustardthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against egg, ham, olive, pepper. 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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