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Ragout of Bggs and Bacon

A savory dish of boiled eggs filled with a seasoned mixture of chicken or veal, herbs, anchovy, and mushroom ketchup, served on bacon.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 13 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 Bggs and Bacon

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the eggs

  1. Boil the eggs for 10 minutes, then place them in cold water.

  2. Peel the eggs and cut them in half.

Make the filling

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

  2. Fill the egg white halves with the mixture.

Glaze and serve

  1. Glaze the filled eggs with the egg yolk.

  2. Brown the eggs in a Dutch oven.

  3. Serve on slices of bacon or ham.

  4. For sauce, melt butter and flavor it with mushroom ketchup, anchovy, or spices as desired.

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

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

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

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

  5. Parsley + mushroomtop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together6,132 recipes

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

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

What each ingredient does

Eggs
Egg yolks bind the filling and their richness gives the stuffed eggs a creamy, savoury body.
Chicken or veal
Adds meaty bulk and savoury flavour to the filling.
Bread crumbs
Absorb moisture and help the filling hold together with a soft, even texture.
Butter
Adds fat for richness and a smooth, moist filling.
Anchovy
Contributes concentrated savoury depth, or umami, to the filling.
Mushroom ketchup
Adds deep savoury flavour and a little acidity to the filling.

The step that matters

Browning the filled eggs. Browning relies on the Maillard reaction, which needs surface heat and dryness. Overheating can dry or harden the filling, while too little heat leaves the glaze pale and unappealing.

Swap the parsley

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

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

Fit is the average pairing score against egg, meat, 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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