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Stuffed Eggs

Hard-boiled eggs filled with a seasoned yolk mixture.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 6 ingredients
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Why it works: Mustard and vinegar are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 7% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 14,067 recipes. Both carry isobutyraldehyde, which smells malty, green. The science ↓

Stuffed Eggs

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the eggs

  1. Cook the eggs for 30 minutes.

  2. Remove the shells and cut the eggs lengthwise.

  3. Remove the yolks and mash them.

Make the filling

  1. Add butter, salt, pepper, and mustard to the yolks and mix until smooth.

  2. Add a few drops of vinegar to the mixture.

  3. Fill the egg whites with the yolk mixture and smooth the tops.

Serve

  1. Arrange each half on a bed of fine parsley or lettuce.

  2. Optionally, add half the quantity of potted or deviled ham or tongue.

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. Mustard + vinegartop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together14,067 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

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

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

  3. Pepper + vinegartop 14% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together27,814 recipes

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

  4. Egg + buttertop 17% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together118,967 recipes

    Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).

  5. Butter + peppertop 21% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together85,593 recipes

    Shared aroma: trans-2-nonenal (cardboard, fatty).

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

What each ingredient does

Eggs
Whites provide the structure that holds the filling, and yolks supply the rich, creamy base.
Butter
Adds fat that makes the mashed yolk filling smooth and rich.
Mustard
Adds sharp, pungent flavour that balances the richness of the yolks.
Vinegar
Adds acidity that brightens the flavour of the rich yolk filling.

The step that matters

Cook the eggs for 30 minutes. Overcooking causes a grey-green ring to form around the yolk due to iron and sulfur compounds reacting, and the yolks become dry and crumbly, making the filling harder to mash smooth.

Swap the mustard

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

  1. Capsicumfits better
  2. Mustardthe original
  3. Shallotfits about as well
  4. Cucumberfits about as well

Fit is the average pairing score against egg, butter, pepper, vinegar. 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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