Why it works: Capers and tarragon match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 379 recipes. Both carry coumarin, which smells sweet, hay. The science ↓
Stuffed Eggs
Ingredients
Directions
The book gives no oven temperature. The 350°F (175°C) in the steps was added when the recipe was transcribed, as a starting point.
Prepare the filling
Cut the hard-boiled eggs in half and remove the yolks.
In a bowl, mix the yolks with olives, capers, anchovies, truffles, tarragon, and pepper.
Fill each egg half with the mixture.
Warm and serve
Pour liquefied butter over the filled eggs and warm them in a 350°F (175°C) oven.
Serve each half-egg on a slice of fried bread.
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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Capers + tarragontop 1% of all pairsSmell alikestrongCooked together379 recipes
Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).
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Olive + caperstop 3% of all pairsSmell alikestrongCooked together1,688 recipes
Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).
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Tarragon + peppertop 5% of all pairsSmell alikestrongCooked together2,399 recipes
Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).
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Butter + breadtop 7% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together27,232 recipes
Shared aroma: delta-decalactone (sweet, creamy).
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Olive + tarragontop 9% of all pairsSmell alikestrongCooked together1,323 recipes
Shared aroma: eucalyptol (eucalyptus, herbal).
Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs
What each ingredient does
- Egg yolks
- Form the creamy base of the filling, giving it richness and body.
- Olives
- Add salty, briny flavor that cuts through the richness of the yolks.
- Capers
- Contribute sharp, acidic bite that brightens the filling.
- Anchovies
- Add deep savory flavor that rounds out the filling.
- Truffle trimmings
- Provide an earthy, aromatic note characteristic of the dish.
- Liquefied butter
- Adds fat and moisture, enriching the filling as it warms.
The step that matters
Warming the filled eggs. Heating gently in the oven warms the filling without overcooking it. Butter poured over the eggs carries fat and flavor into the filling, and too much heat can dry the yolk mixture or separate the butter.
Swap the tarragon
How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (egg, olive, capers, truffle, pepper, butter, bread):
- Parsleyfits better
- Tarragonthe original
- Thymefits about as well
- Nutmegfits about as well
Fit is the average pairing score against egg, olive, capers, truffle, pepper, butter, bread. 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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