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Delmonico Lunch

A sandwich of toasted bread with mushroom sauce, deviled eggs, parsley, and stuffed olives.

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 ↓

Delmonico Lunch

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the eggs

  1. Simmer the eggs slowly for 20 minutes.

  2. Cool the eggs in cold water.

  3. When cold, shell and cut the eggs in half lengthwise.

  4. Remove the yolks and place them in a bowl, keeping the white halves.

  5. Add 2 tablespoons of butter, 1 teaspoon of salt, and a dash of cayenne pepper to the yolks.

  6. Mix the yolks well.

  7. Return the yolk mixture to the egg halves.

Make the mushroom sauce

  1. Make a white sauce by gradually adding 2 cups of whole milk to 3 tablespoons of flour until smooth.

  2. Cook the sauce in a double boiler for 12 minutes.

  3. Add 1 tablespoon of butter, 1 teaspoon of salt, and the mushrooms to the sauce.

Assemble and serve

  1. Cut 12 round slices from the bread.

  2. Toast the slices until golden brown.

  3. Butter one side of each slice.

  4. Place one slice buttered side up on a plate.

  5. Spread a spoonful of the mushroom mixture on top.

  6. Place a second slice buttered side down over the mushroom mixture.

  7. Add another spoonful of the creamed mixture on top.

  8. Top each sandwich with half of a deviled egg.

  9. Garnish with 3 small sprays of parsley and a stuffed olive between each spray.

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. Butter + breadtop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together27,232 recipes

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

  3. Butter + milktop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together81,283 recipes

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

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

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

  5. Mushroom + breadtop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together2,536 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).

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

What each ingredient does

Eggs
Whites hold the yolk filling, and the cooked yolks are mashed into a rich, savory filling.
Flour
Starch thickens the milk into a smooth white sauce that binds the mushrooms.
Whole milk
Liquid base of the white sauce, giving it body and creaminess as it thickens.
Butter
Adds richness and flavor to the yolk filling, sauce and buttered bread.
Canned button mushrooms
Provide savory flavor and chunky texture within the creamed sauce.

The step that matters

Cook the sauce in a double boiler. Gentle indirect heat lets flour starch swell and thicken the milk smoothly without scorching or lumps, which direct high heat can cause.

Swap the parsley

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

  1. Nutmegfits about as well
  2. Parsleythe original
  3. Thymefits about as well
  4. Cinnamonfits about as well

Fit is the average pairing score against egg, butter, pepper, milk, flour, mushroom, bread. 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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