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Tartines a LA Creole

A sandwich of mayonnaise, aspic, gelatin, and hard‑boiled eggs served on sliced bread, garnished with watercress or parsley.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 6 ingredients
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Why it works: Egg and bread are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 13% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 22,662 recipes. Both carry (e)-2-octenal, which smells fatty, green. The science ↓

Tartines a LA Creole

Ingredients

Directions

Make the mayonnaise

  1. Melt the aspic jelly and dissolve the gelatin in it, then strain.

  2. Stir the liquid mixture gradually into the mayonnaise, which should be seasoned.

Prepare the eggs and bread

  1. Finely chop the white of the hard-boiled eggs and rub the yolks through a wire sieve.

  2. Season the egg whites with a little vinegar or lemon juice.

  3. Cut rounds of bread about ½ inch thick.

  4. Mask one side of each round with the prepared mayonnaise just before it sets.

Assemble and serve

  1. Arrange the seasoned whites in a ring on the masked rounds, leaving the center for the yolks.

  2. Garnish with sprigs of cress or parsley and serve.

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. Egg + breadtop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together22,662 recipes

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

  2. Bread + watercresstop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together307 recipes

    Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).

  3. Egg + watercresstop 20% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together638 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-methylbutyraldehyde (malty, chocolate).

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

What each ingredient does

Mayonnaise
Forms the creamy base layer that holds the egg and gives the sandwich its moisture and richness.
Aspic
Sets the seasoned mayonnaise into a firm, glossy coating as it cools.
Gelatine
Provides the gel structure that helps the mayonnaise mixture set firmly.
Hard-boiled eggs
Supply the main filling, with chopped whites for texture and sieved yolks for a soft, rich topping.

The step that matters

Mask the rounds just before the mayonnaise sets. Gelatine-based mixtures set as they cool. If the mayonnaise is too cold or too thick, it will clump and tear the bread instead of spreading smoothly, so it must be applied while still fluid.

“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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