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Ceufs Farcis, Sauce Mayonnaise

Stuffed hard‑boiled eggs filled with a seasoned yolk and breadcrumb mixture, baked briefly and served with mayonnaise or tartare sauce.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 10 ingredients
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Why it works: Pepper and parsley 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 ↓

Ceufs Farcis, Sauce Mayonnaise

Ingredients

Directions

The book gives no oven temperature. The 400°F (200°C) in the steps was added when the recipe was transcribed, as a starting point.

Prepare the filling

  1. Carefully remove the shells from the hard-boiled eggs and cut them in half lengthwise.

  2. Rub the yolks to a powder and mix with an equal amount of bread crumbs.

  3. Add the milk, Parmesan, butter, chives, parsley, cayenne, salt, and pepper. Mix well. If the mixture is too dry, moisten it with a little milk.

Fill and bake

  1. Fill the egg shells with the mixture, rounding the tops.

  2. Place the filled shells on a tin and bake in a 400°F (200°C) oven for about 5 minutes until delicately browned.

Serve

  1. Let cool and serve with mayonnaise or tartare sauce, or serve hot with tomato sauce.

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. Pepper + parsleytop 2% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together34,122 recipes

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

  2. Chive + parsleytop 3% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together2,150 recipes

    Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).

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

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

  4. Milk + buttertop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together81,283 recipes

    Shared aroma: (z)-4-heptenal (biscuit, cream).

  5. Parmesan cheese + buttertop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together4,163 recipes

    Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).

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 yolks, which are mashed into the filling and form the body of the dish.
Bread crumbs
Absorb moisture from the yolks, giving the filling a firmer, less crumbly texture.
Milk
Adds moisture so the yolk mixture becomes smooth and easy to pile into the shells.
Parmesan cheese
Adds savory, salty flavor and helps the tops brown in the oven.
Butter
Adds richness and fat, giving the filling a smoother, softer mouthfeel.

The step that matters

Moisten the filling only as needed. Yolk and bread crumb mixtures can turn dry and crumbly, so adding milk gradually until the filling is smooth and pipeable keeps it cohesive. Adding too much liquid, however, makes it loose and runny, so it should be checked before filling the shells.

Swap the chive

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

  1. Asparagusfits better
  2. Potatofits better
  3. Capsicumfits about as well
  4. Chivethe original

Fit is the average pairing score against egg, milk, bread, pepper, parmesan cheese, butter, parsley. 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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