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Hah, Salt Fobk and Bacon

A fried mixture of chopped ham, mustard, vinegar, bread crumbs, eggs, and seasonings formed into patties.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 10 ingredients
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Why it works: Ham and bread are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 7% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 2,536 recipes. Both carry 2-acetyl-1-pyrroline, which smells popcorn, roasted. The science ↓

Hah, Salt Fobk and Bacon

Ingredients

Directions

Make the mixture

  1. Combine ham, mustard, vinegar, bread crumbs, eggs, pepper, salt, and enough milk to make a moist mixture.

  2. Form the mixture into small balls.

Fry and serve

  1. Roll the balls in egg and bread crumbs.

  2. Fry the coated balls in boiling fat until golden.

  3. Fry spoonfuls of the mixture on a griddle until golden brown.

  4. Alternatively, use mashed potatoes instead of bread crumbs and follow the same frying method.

  5. For a baked version, place the mixture in a baking dish, make depressions with a spoon, crack an egg into each, and bake until the eggs are set.

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 + breadtop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together2,536 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-acetyl-1-pyrroline (popcorn, roasted).

  2. Mustard + vinegartop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together14,067 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  3. Mustard + peppertop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together15,430 recipes

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

  4. Bread + milktop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together11,466 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-undecenal (sweet).

  5. Bread + eggtop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together22,662 recipes

    Shared aroma: (e)-2-octenal (fatty, green).

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

What each ingredient does

Eggs
Bind the mixture and set to hold the patties together when cooked.
Bread crumbs
Absorb moisture and give the patties body and a firmer texture.
Ham
Provides the main savory flavor and protein base of the patties.
Mustard
Adds sharp, pungent flavor that cuts the richness of the ham.
Vinegar
Adds acidity that brightens the flavor of the mixture.

The step that matters

Adding enough milk to make a moist mixture. Bread crumbs and eggs soak up liquid as they sit, so too little milk leaves the mixture dry and crumbly, while too much makes it slack and hard to shape or fry. Judging the moisture before shaping gives patties that hold together and brown well.

Swap the mustard

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (ham, vinegar, bread, egg, pepper, milk):

  1. Capsicumfits better
  2. Mustardthe original
  3. Asparagusfits about as well
  4. Tomatofits about as well

Fit is the average pairing score against ham, vinegar, bread, egg, pepper, milk. 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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