Name: Scalloped Eggs
Ingredients: 2 hard boiled eggs; 1 cup plain white sauce; 1 tablespoon mustard or horseradish sauce; Potatoes

Why it works: Mustard and potato are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 7% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 1,340 recipes. Both carry 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine, which smells earthy, pea. The science ↓

Scalloped Eggs

Ingredients

2 hard boiled eggs
1 cup plain white sauce
1 tablespoon mustard or horseradish sauce
Potatoes

Directions

Prepare a plain white sauce and mix in mustard or horseradish sauce.
Cut the hard boiled eggs in half and pour the sauce over them.
Serve with potatoes.

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.

Mustard + potatotop 7% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together1,340 recipes

Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).
Sauce + mustardtop 13% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together2,120 recipes

Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).
Sauce + potatotop 25% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked together1,073 recipes

Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).
Egg + mustardtop 28% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together9,210 recipes

Shared aroma: (e)-2-octenal (fatty, green).
Egg + potatotop 29% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together4,978 recipes

Shared aroma: (e)-2-octenal (fatty, green).

Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs

What each ingredient does

Hard boiled eggs: Form the main body of the dish, giving it substance and protein-rich bulk.
Plain white sauce: Adds creamy moisture that coats the eggs and gives the dish its smooth texture.
Mustard or horseradish sauce: Adds sharp, pungent flavour that cuts the richness of the white sauce.