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Deviled Eggs

Deviled eggs are hard‑boiled eggs filled with a seasoned yolk mixture.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 8 ingredients
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Why it works: Mustard and lettuce match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 1,356 recipes. Both carry 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine, which smells earthy, pea. The science ↓

Deviled Eggs

Ingredients

Directions

Boil the eggs

  1. Place the eggs in cold water.

  2. Bring the water to a boil.

  3. Cook the eggs for 20 minutes.

  4. Plunge the eggs into cold water to cool.

  5. Carefully remove the shells.

Make the filling

  1. Cut the eggs in half lengthwise or across.

  2. Remove the yolks.

  3. Mash the yolks in a bowl.

  4. Mix in melted butter or olive oil, salt, pepper, mustard, celery seed, and mayonnaise.

  5. Spoon the yolk mixture back into the egg whites.

Serve

  1. If desired, skewer the halves together with toothpicks.

  2. Serve on a bed of lettuce leaves if using as a supper relish.

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. Mustard + lettucetop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together1,356 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).

  2. Mustard + celerytop 2% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together4,169 recipes

    Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).

  3. Celery + lettucetop 4% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together2,033 recipes

    Shared aroma: nonanal (fat, citrus).

  4. Pepper + celerytop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together16,012 recipes

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

  5. Pepper + mustardtop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together15,430 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).

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

What each ingredient does

Eggs
Provide the whites that hold the filling and the yolks that are mashed into it.
Mayonnaise
Adds moisture and creaminess to the mashed yolks.
Melted butter or olive oil
Adds fat, making the yolk filling smoother and richer.
Mustard
Adds sharp acidity that balances the richness of the yolks.

The step that matters

Cook the eggs for 20 minutes. Overcooking makes the yolks dry and chalky and can leave a grey-green ring around them. Cooling the eggs quickly in cold water helps stop the cooking and makes the shells easier to peel.

Swap the lettuce

The recipe marks lettuce as optional. How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (egg, butter, pepper, mustard, celery):

  1. Horseradishfits about as well
  2. Chivefits about as well
  3. Lettucethe original
  4. Spinachfits about as well

Fit is the average pairing score against egg, butter, pepper, mustard, celery. 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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