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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
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Why it works: Celery and mustard are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 2% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 4,169 recipes. Both carry guaiacol, which smells smoky, sweet. The science ↓

Deviled Eggs

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. Cut the hard-boiled eggs in half and keep the whites unbroken.

  2. Rub the yolks until smooth.

Make the filling

  1. Work in the butter and season with coarse sea salt.

  2. Add the finely chopped celery or lettuce.

  3. Mix in the mustard and a little vinegar to form a smooth paste.

Fill and garnish

  1. Fill the egg whites with the yolk mixture and garnish with celery tops or 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. Celery + mustardtop 2% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together4,169 recipes

    Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).

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

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  3. Celery + vinegartop 17% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together5,627 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 + mustardtop 22% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together8,003 recipes

    Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).

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, smooth base that carries the other flavors of the filling.
Butter
Adds fat, making the yolk filling richer and softer in texture.
Mustard
Adds sharp, pungent flavor that cuts through the richness of the yolks.
Vinegar
Adds acidity that brightens the filling and balances the rich yolks.
Celery or lettuce
Adds a crisp, fresh texture and mild vegetal flavor to the filling.

The step that matters

Rub the yolks until smooth. Lumps of yolk leave the filling grainy and uneven. Pressing the yolks through a fine sieve or working them thoroughly before adding butter gives a silky texture, and the butter blends in more evenly when the yolks are already smooth.

Swap the celery

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

  1. Tarragonfits better
  2. Capersfits better
  3. Dillfits better
  4. Celerythe original

Fit is the average pairing score against egg, butter, mustard, 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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