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Fried Ham and Eggs

A dish of fried ham and eggs cooked in lard.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 3 ingredients
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Why it works: Ham and egg are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 17% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 4,526 recipes. Both carry 2,4-decadienal, which smells seaweed. The science ↓

Fried Ham and Eggs

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the ham

  1. Fry the ham and place it on a serving dish.

  2. Remove the fat from the pan and wipe it clean.

  3. Drain the fat back into the pan, leaving any sediments behind.

Fry the eggs and serve

  1. Add some lard to the pan and heat it until boiling hot.

  2. Carefully drop the eggs into the hot lard and cook them.

  3. Arrange the cooked eggs around the ham on the serving dish.

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. Ham + eggtop 17% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together4,526 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2,4-decadienal (seaweed).

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

What each ingredient does

Ham
Provides the savoury, meaty main component that is fried and served as the centrepiece.
Lard
Fat for frying that carries heat evenly and gives the eggs a rich flavour and crisp edges.
Eggs
Cook in the hot fat to set into the main egg component of the dish.

The step that matters

Heating the lard until boiling hot before adding the eggs. Fat that is hot enough sets the egg whites quickly on contact, giving a tidy shape and crisp edges. If the lard is too cool, the eggs soak up grease and cook unevenly and slowly.

“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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