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 ↓
Stuffed Eggs
Ingredients
Directions
The book gives no oven temperature. The 350°F (175°C) in the steps was added when the recipe was transcribed, as a starting point.
Prepare the filling
Cut the hard-boiled eggs in half lengthwise and remove the yolks.
Chop the yolks and parsley finely and place in a bowl.
Add salt, pepper, nutmeg, soaked bread, and butter to the bowl; mix well.
Fill and bake
Fill the egg whites with the mixture, slightly overfilling them.
Spread a layer of vegetable puree in a saucepan and place the filled egg halves on top, mixture side up.
Bake in a 350°F (175°C) oven for 10 minutes and serve warm.
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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Parsley + peppertop 2% of all pairsSmell alikestrongCooked together34,122 recipes
Shared aroma: 4'-methylacetophenone (bitter almond).
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Parsley + nutmegtop 3% of all pairsSmell alikestrongCooked together5,062 recipes
Shared aroma: 4'-methylacetophenone (bitter almond).
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Nutmeg + spinachtop 4% of all pairsSmell alikestrongCooked together603 recipes
Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).
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Parsley + spinachtop 5% of all pairsSmell alikestrongCooked together1,025 recipes
Shared aroma: trans-2-hexenal (green, leafy).
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Pepper + spinachtop 6% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together3,400 recipes
Shared aroma: nonanal (fat, citrus).
Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs
What each ingredient does
- Eggs
- Provide the main body and the rich yolk filling that forms the dish.
- Butter
- Adds fat and richness, making the yolk filling smooth and moist.
- Soft bread soaked in milk
- Adds moisture and body, keeping the yolk filling soft and light.
- Spinach or sorrel puree
- Forms a moist green base under the eggs and adds earthy flavour.
The step that matters
Fill the egg whites with the mixture, slightly overfilling them.. Egg yolk and butter mixtures are rich and can slump or dry out in the oven if packed unevenly. A slight overfill gives a full, rounded filling that holds its shape while warming through.
Swap the spinach
How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (egg, parsley, pepper, nutmeg, bread, milk, butter):
- Potatofits about as well
- Capsicumfits about as well
- Shallotfits about as well
- Spinachthe original
Fit is the average pairing score against egg, parsley, pepper, nutmeg, bread, milk, 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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