Skip to main content
Main

Deviled Eggs

Deviled eggs are hard‑boiled eggs filled with a seasoned yolk mixture.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 7 ingredients
Jump to recipe ↓

Why it works: Pepper and parsley 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 ↓

Deviled Eggs

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the eggs

  1. Boil the eggs hard, then place them in cold water.

  2. Shell the eggs and cut them in half.

  3. Remove the yolks and rub them fine.

Make and fill

  1. In a bowl, mix the yolks with melted butter, vinegar, pepper, salt, and mustard.

  2. Thoroughly mix the dressing and replace it into the egg whites.

  3. Garnish with parsley.

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. Pepper + parsleytop 2% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together34,122 recipes

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

  2. Vinegar + mustardtop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together14,067 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  3. Mustard + parsleytop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together2,588 recipes

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

  4. Pepper + mustardtop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together15,430 recipes

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

  5. Vinegar + peppertop 14% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together27,814 recipes

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

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.
Melted butter
Adds fat that makes the yolk filling smooth and rich.
Vinegar
Adds acidity that brightens the flavour and cuts the richness of the yolks.
Mustard
Adds sharp, pungent flavour that balances the richness of the filling.

The step that matters

Rub the yolks fine. Pressing the cooked yolks through a fine mesh or rubbing them finely breaks up lumps, so the dressing blends smoothly. Thorough mixing then spreads the seasonings and fat evenly through the filling.

Swap the mustard

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

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

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

More deviled eggs recipes

on Toast 3 See all 151 →

You might also like

Tomato SoupTomato Soup526 recipesBrown BreadBrown Bread461 recipesMutton BrothMutton Broth292 recipesYorkshire PuddingYorkshire Pudding264 recipes