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Potted Eggs

Hard‑boiled eggs are halved, yolks mixed with butter, anchovy sauce, and pepper, then returned to shells and topped with melted butter.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 4 ingredients
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Why it works: Anchovy and sauce are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 2% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 2,057 recipes. Both carry ethanol, which smells alcoholic, ethereal. The science ↓

Potted Eggs

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the eggs

  1. Boil the eggs until hard-boiled, then place them in a basin of cold water.

  2. Once cold, remove the shells and cut the eggs in half.

Make the filling

  1. Take out the yolks and place them in a mortar with 1½ ounces of butter, anchovy sauce, and pepper.

  2. Pound the mixture until thoroughly combined.

Pot and seal

  1. Transfer the mixture into small pots.

  2. Melt the remaining ½ ounce of butter and pour it over the top to seal.

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. Anchovy + saucetop 2% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together2,057 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).

  2. Egg + anchovytop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together2,330 recipes

    Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).

  3. Butter + anchovytop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together3,697 recipes

    Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).

  4. Butter + saucetop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together15,338 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).

  5. Anchovy + peppertop 17% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together3,232 recipes

    Shared aroma: eucalyptol (eucalyptus, herbal).

Butter and sauce barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 15,338 recipes: they work on texture and structure more than aroma.

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 of the spread, with yolks giving richness and a creamy texture.
Butter
Adds fat and richness, and its melted layer on top seals the pots.
Anchovy sauce
Adds salty, savoury depth to the yolk mixture.

The step that matters

Pounding the yolk mixture. Pounding until thoroughly combined helps the yolks, butter and anchovy sauce blend into a smooth, even paste. Uneven mixing leaves lumps of yolk and pockets of seasoning.

“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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