Why it works: Parsley and pepper match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 2% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 34,122 recipes. Both carry 4'-methylacetophenone, which smells bitter almond. The science ↓
Egg Salad
Ingredients
Directions
Prepare the eggs
Hard boil the eggs.
Arrange the boiled eggs in a salad bowl, sprinkling well with salt and pepper.
Make the sauce
Melt the butter in a frying pan.
Stir in the flour and milk.
Cook until boiling, thick, and smooth, then add the parsley.
Serve
Pour the sauce over the eggs and serve hot, garnished with parsley.
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.
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Parsley + peppertop 2% of all pairsSmell alikestrongCooked together34,122 recipes
Shared aroma: 4'-methylacetophenone (bitter almond).
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Butter + milktop 7% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together81,283 recipes
Shared aroma: (z)-4-heptenal (biscuit, cream).
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Butter + flourtop 12% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together124,287 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
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Flour + parsleytop 12% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together16,675 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
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Flour + milktop 14% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together78,219 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
Butter and flour barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 124,287 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
- Butter
- Melted into the pan to start the sauce and add richness.
- Flour
- Thickens the milk into a smooth, thick sauce as it cooks.
- Milk
- Forms the liquid base of the sauce, which thickens when brought to a boil.
- Hard-boiled eggs
- Form the main body of the salad, providing protein and bulk.
The step that matters
Cook the sauce until smooth and thick. Flour must be cooked after it meets the hot liquid to thicken fully and lose its raw taste. Stirring keeps lumps from forming, so the sauce coats the eggs evenly.
Flavor stand-ins for the parsley
How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (butter, flour, milk, pepper, egg):
- Nutmegabout as good a flavor fit
- Cinnamonabout as good a flavor fit
- Parsleythe original
- Cardamomabout as good a flavor fit
Fit is the average pairing score against butter, flour, milk, pepper, egg. Candidates are from the same food group and used in at least 100 recipes. This compares flavor only: it does not check the job the ingredient does in the dish (bulk, moisture, acidity, structure).
“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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