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Ragout of Eggs with Ham or Bacon

A ragout made from hard-boiled eggs, white meat, bread crumbs, herbs, and spices, served on ham or bacon.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 13 ingredients
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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 ↓

Ragout of Eggs with Ham or Bacon

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the filling

  1. Shell and halve the hard-boiled eggs.

  2. In a bowl, beat the yolks with the white meat, bread crumbs, parsley, eschalot, anchovy, cayenne, salt, nutmeg, butter, and mushroom catsup until well combined.

  3. Fill the egg white halves with the mixture.

Coat and cook

  1. Beat the yolk of an egg and dip each filled egg half into it.

  2. Fry the eggs in butter or brown them in a Dutch oven.

Serve

  1. Serve on slices of ham or bacon.

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 + peppertop 2% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together34,122 recipes

    Shared aroma: 4'-methylacetophenone (bitter almond).

  2. Parsley + nutmegtop 3% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together5,062 recipes

    Shared aroma: 4'-methylacetophenone (bitter almond).

  3. Bread + buttertop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together27,232 recipes

    Shared aroma: delta-decalactone (sweet, creamy).

  4. Pepper + nutmegtop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together13,015 recipes

    Shared aroma: 4'-methylacetophenone (bitter almond).

  5. Bread + anchovytop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,260 recipes

    Shared aroma: hexanol (green, fruity).

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

What each ingredient does

Hard-boiled eggs
Provide the base and the yolk-based filling that holds the mixture together.
White meat from dressed fowl or veal
Adds substance and a tender, savoury body to the filling.
Bread crumbs
Absorb moisture and bind the filling so it holds its shape.
Anchovy
Adds a salty, savoury depth to the filling.
Mushroom catsup
Adds concentrated savoury, umami flavour to the filling.
Butter
Adds richness to the filling and browns the coated eggs when fried.

The step that matters

Frying the coated eggs. Egg coating and butter over direct heat can scorch before the coating sets and browns evenly. Moderate heat lets the beaten egg set and the butter brown gently without burning.

Swap the nutmeg

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (egg, meat, bread, parsley, anchovy, pepper, butter):

  1. Thymefits about as well
  2. Capersfits about as well
  3. Nutmegthe original
  4. Marjoramfits about as well

Fit is the average pairing score against egg, meat, bread, parsley, anchovy, pepper, butter. 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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