Name: Devilled Eggs
Ingredients: eggs; brown butter; vinegar; spinach leaves; butter; grated cheese; Mornay sauce

Why it works: Butter and cheese are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 8% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 7,962 recipes. Both carry delta-dodecalactone, which smells sweet, creamy. The science ↓

Devilled Eggs

Oven, in the book's wordsA fierce oven

Ingredients

Directions

The book says “a fierce oven”. The 400°F (200°C) in the steps is the modern equivalent, not the book's own figure.

Cook the eggs in an omelette pan, turning them carefully like pancakes.
Slide the eggs gently into a dish and sprinkle with brown butter and a few drops of vinegar.
Garnish the bottom of the dish with spinach leaves stewed in butter and sprinkle with grated cheese.
Break the eggs onto the spinach garnish and cover with Mornay sauce.
Place in a hot oven at 400°F (200°C) to cook and glaze the eggs simultaneously.

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.

Butter + cheesetop 8% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together7,962 recipes

Shared aroma: delta-dodecalactone (sweet, creamy).
Vinegar + cheesetop 12% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together922 recipes

Shared aroma: 3-methylbutanol (malty, whiskey).
Butter + saucetop 15% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked together15,338 recipes

Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).
Egg + buttertop 17% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together118,967 recipes

Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).
Cheese + saucetop 19% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked together1,987 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

Swap the spinach

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

Mustardfits better
Capsicumfits better
Shallotfits better
Spinachthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against egg, butter, vinegar, cheese, sauce. Candidates are from the same food group and used in at least 100 recipes.