Name: Fricassee of Eggs
Ingredients: 3 hard-boiled eggs; 1 shallot, finely chopped; 2 tablespoons chopped parsley; Salt and pepper to taste; 2 tablespoons butter; 1 cup white sauce

Why it works: Shallot and parsley match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 3,737 recipes. Both carry 2,4-decadienal, which smells seaweed. The science ↓

Fricassee of Eggs

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the filling

Cut the hard-boiled eggs in half and remove the yolks.
Pound the yolks with the shallot, parsley, salt, pepper, and butter until smooth.

Assemble and serve

Fill the egg whites with the yolk mixture and keep them warm.
Prepare the white sauce and pour it over the filled eggs before serving.

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.

Shallot + parsleytop 1% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together3,737 recipes

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

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together34,122 recipes

Shared aroma: 4'-methylacetophenone (bitter almond).
Shallot + peppertop 11% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together5,898 recipes

Shared aroma: 2,4-decadienal (seaweed).
Shallot + saucetop 14% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together1,303 recipes

Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).
Butter + saucetop 15% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked together15,338 recipes

Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).

Butter and sauce barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 15,338 recipes: they work on texture and structure more than aroma.

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

What each ingredient does

Egg yolks: Form a smooth, rich filling when pounded with butter.
Butter: Adds fat and richness, making the yolk filling smooth and creamy.
White sauce: Adds a moist, creamy coating that softens the flavour of the filled eggs.
Shallot: Adds a mild onion-like aroma and savoury flavour to the filling.

Swap the shallot

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

Shallotthe original
Capsicumfits about as well
Chivefits about as well
Carrotfits less well

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