Name: Stuffed Eggs a LA Russe
Ingredients: 6 hard-boiled eggs; caviare; mayonnaise sauce; 2 tomatoes; chopped parsley; olive oil; vinegar; salt; pepper

Why it works: Tomato and olive are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 15,539 recipes. Both carry 3-hexenal, which smells apple, fruity. The science ↓

Stuffed Eggs a LA Russe

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the eggs

Remove the shells from the hard-boiled eggs and cut them in half crosswise.
Scoop out the yolks and mix them with mayonnaise sauce.
Fill the egg whites with caviare and cover with the yolk mixture.

Dress the tomatoes and serve

Slice the tomatoes and season with chopped parsley, olive oil, vinegar, salt, and pepper.
Serve the stuffed eggs on the tomato slices and 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.

Tomato + olivetop 1% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together15,539 recipes

Shared aroma: 3-hexenal (apple, fruity).
Parsley + peppertop 2% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together34,122 recipes

Shared aroma: 4'-methylacetophenone (bitter almond).
Parsley + olivetop 6% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together9,649 recipes

Shared aroma: 2,4-decadienal (seaweed).
Tomato + peppertop 7% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together17,923 recipes

Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).
Tomato + parsleytop 8% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together5,398 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

Hard-boiled eggs: Provide the structure: the whites hold the filling and the yolks are mashed into the filling.
Caviare: Adds a salty, briny flavour and a contrasting texture to the filling.
Mayonnaise sauce: Binds the mashed yolks into a smooth, moist filling that holds its shape.
Tomatoes: Add acidity and moisture, forming a juicy base under the eggs.

Swap the tomato

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

Capsicumfits better
Shallotfits about as well
Mustardfits about as well
Tomatothe original

Fit is the average pairing score against egg, sauce, parsley, olive, vinegar, 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.