Why it works: Pepper and watercress work together. They rank in the top 10% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 983 recipes. Both carry coumarin, which smells sweet, hay. The science ↓
Devilled Eggs
Ingredients
Directions
Prepare the filling
Cut the hard-boiled eggs in half and remove the yolks.
In a bowl, season the yolks with salt and cayenne, then add enough bread crumbs to make a crumbly mixture.
Fill and serve
Trim a small piece off the ends of the egg whites to help them stand upright.
Fill the hollowed egg whites with the seasoned yolk mixture, piling it high.
Arrange the filled eggs on a dish and garnish with watercress.
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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Pepper + watercresstop 10% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together983 recipes
Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).
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Egg + breadtop 13% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together22,662 recipes
Shared aroma: (e)-2-octenal (fatty, green).
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Bread + watercresstop 15% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together307 recipes
Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).
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Pepper + breadtop 16% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together20,964 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).
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Egg + watercresstop 20% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked 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
- Eggs
- Yolks form the creamy base of the filling, and the whites act as the serving shell.
- Bread crumbs
- Absorb moisture from the yolks, giving the filling a crumbly, firm texture that holds its shape.
- Cayenne pepper
- Adds a mild, sharp heat that balances the richness of the yolks.
The step that matters
Add enough bread crumbs to make a crumbly mixture. Bread crumbs absorb moisture from the yolks and fat. Too few leaves the filling loose and runny, so it will not pile neatly. Too many makes it dry and pasty, which dulls the flavour and texture.
“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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