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Deviled Biscuits

Biscuits filled with a cheese and egg yolk mixture, baked until heated.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 7 ingredients
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Why it works: Biscuit and mustard match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 4% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 121 recipes. Both carry coumarin, which smells sweet, hay. The science ↓

Deviled Biscuits

Oven, in the book's wordsA quick oven

Ingredients

Directions

The book says “a quick oven”. The 400°F (200°C) in the steps is the modern equivalent, not the book's own figure.

Prepare

  1. Split the stale rolls or biscuits and toast them to a light brown in a 400°F (200°C) oven.

Make the topping

  1. In a bowl, mix the grated cheese, salad oil, mustard, salt, cayenne, and beaten egg yolks until smooth.

  2. Spread the mixture on the inside of the toasted biscuits.

Bake and serve

  1. Place the biscuits back in the oven to heat through and serve covered with a napkin.

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. Biscuit + mustardtop 4% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together121 recipes

    Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).

  2. Cheese + mustardtop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,805 recipes

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

  3. Biscuit + cheesetop 16% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together252 recipes

    Shared aroma: nonanal (fat, citrus).

  4. Biscuit + eggtop 27% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,643 recipes

    Shared aroma: nonanal (fat, citrus).

  5. Cheese + eggtop 28% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together6,253 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

Stale rolls or biscuits
Provide the base that toasting firms into a crisp, sturdy support for the topping.
Dry cheese
Adds savoury flavour and, as it heats, a browned, slightly crisp surface.
Egg yolks
Bind the mixture and give it a smooth, rich, custard-like texture when heated.
Salad oil
Adds fat that keeps the topping smooth and helps it spread and brown.

The step that matters

Toasting the biscuits to light brown. Toasting dries the bread so it stays crisp under the moist, egg-rich topping. Under-toasted bread softens and turns soggy, while over-toasting makes it brittle and dark.

Swap the mustard

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (biscuit, cheese, egg):

  1. Mustardthe original
  2. Welsh onionfits about as well
  3. Asparagusfits about as well
  4. Spinachfits less well

Fit is the average pairing score against biscuit, cheese, egg. 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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