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Devilled Eggs

Devilled Eggs are hard‑boiled eggs topped with a seasoned yolk mixture and a hot white sauce, served on buttered toast.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 12 ingredients
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Why it works: Walnut and olive match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 6% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 2,087 recipes. Both carry 2-undecenal, which smells sweet. The science ↓

Devilled Eggs

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the filling

  1. Remove the yolks from the hard‑boiled eggs and place them in a bowl.

  2. Mix the yolks with the mustard, olive oil, and seasonings using the back of a spoon.

Make the white sauce

  1. In a chafing dish, combine the milk, butter mixed with corn starch, and finely chopped egg whites.

  2. Stir constantly until the mixture is boiling hot.

Assemble and serve

  1. Spread the yolk mixture thickly on slices of buttered toast.

  2. Sprinkle grated Parmesan cheese over the yolk mixture, then pour the hot white sauce on top and serve.

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. Walnut + olivetop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together2,087 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-undecenal (sweet).

  2. Butter + milktop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together81,283 recipes

    Shared aroma: (z)-4-heptenal (biscuit, cream).

  3. Mustard + olivetop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together5,950 recipes

    Shared aroma: eucalyptol (eucalyptus, herbal).

  4. Butter + parmesan cheesetop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together4,163 recipes

    Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).

  5. Walnut + mustardtop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together849 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

Eggs
Yolks form the rich, creamy filling, while the chopped whites add body to the sauce.
Butter
Adds richness and fat, and helps carry flavor through the sauce.
Corn starch
Thickens the milk as it heats, giving the sauce a smooth, spoonable body.
Milk
Forms the liquid base of the white sauce that the starch thickens.
Dry mustard
Adds sharp, pungent flavor that cuts through the richness of the yolks.
Parmesan cheese
Contributes savory, salty flavor to the yolk topping.

The step that matters

Stir constantly until the mixture is boiling hot. Corn starch only thickens fully once it reaches a boil. Constant stirring spreads the heat evenly, prevents lumps and scorching at the bottom, and gives a smooth sauce.

Swap the mustard

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (egg, butter, walnut, milk, corn, parmesan cheese, olive):

  1. Capsicumfits better
  2. Asparagusfits better
  3. Potatofits better
  4. Mustardthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against egg, butter, walnut, milk, corn, parmesan cheese, olive. 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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