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Ragout of Eggs and Bacon

A ragout of eggs and bacon with a savory filling of chicken or veal, parsley, anchovy, shallot, butter, mushroom ketchup, cayenne, bread crumbs, and mace.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 11 ingredients
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Why it works: Parsley and shallot 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 ↓

Ragout of Eggs and Bacon

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the eggs

  1. Boil the eggs for 10 minutes.

  2. Transfer the eggs to cold water.

  3. Peel the eggs.

  4. Cut them in half.

Make the filling

  1. In a bowl, pound the yolks with the shredded chicken or veal, parsley, anchovy, shallot, butter, mushroom ketchup, cayenne, bread crumbs, and mace or allspice until well combined.

Fill and brown

  1. Fill the egg white halves with the mixture.

  2. Brush the filled eggs with beaten egg yolk.

  3. Brown them in a Dutch oven.

  4. Serve on a bed of crispy bacon or ham.

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. Parsley + shallottop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together3,737 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2,4-decadienal (seaweed).

  2. Anchovy + ketchuptop 2% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together479 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).

  3. Chicken + mushroomtop 4% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together4,172 recipes

    Shared aroma: 1-butyl acetate (fruity, banana).

  4. Shallot + mushroomtop 4% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,982 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2,4-decadienal (seaweed).

  5. Butter + mushroomtop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together12,525 recipes

    Shared aroma: trans-2-decenal (waxy, orange).

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

What each ingredient does

Eggs
Provide the main body of the dish, with yolks binding the filling and whites holding it.
Cooked chicken or veal
Adds savory body and substance to the filling.
Butter
Adds fat and richness, giving the filling a smooth, moist texture.
Bread crumbs
Absorb moisture and help the filling hold together with a soft texture.
Anchovy
Adds deep savory flavor that enriches the filling without tasting distinctly fishy.
Mushroom ketchup
Contributes concentrated savory, umami flavor to the filling.

The step that matters

Brown them in a Dutch oven. Browning sets the surface and develops color and flavor through the Maillard reaction. Too little heat or time leaves the coating pale and underdeveloped, while too much can scorch the egg-yolk glaze.

Swap the parsley

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (egg, chicken, anchovy, shallot, butter, mushroom, ketchup):

  1. Capersfits better
  2. Thymefits about as well
  3. Parsleythe original
  4. Tarragonfits about as well

Fit is the average pairing score against egg, chicken, anchovy, shallot, butter, mushroom, ketchup. 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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