Name: Broiled Ham and Eggs
Ingredients: thinly sliced ham; hot water; salt pork; eggs

Why it works: Ham and pork are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 13% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 2,638 recipes. Both carry 2-acetyl-1-pyrroline, which smells popcorn, roasted. The science ↓

Broiled Ham and Eggs

Ingredients

thinly sliced ham
hot water
salt pork
eggs

Directions

Soak the ham slices in hot water for 3-4 minutes to reduce saltiness.
Dry the ham slices and broil them over hot coals for about 5 minutes.
Fry several slices of salt pork in a pan.
Add the eggs to the pan and cook until the whites are firm, basting with the fat from the pork.

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.

Ham + porktop 13% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together2,638 recipes

Shared aroma: 2-acetyl-1-pyrroline (popcorn, roasted).
Ham + eggtop 17% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together4,526 recipes

Shared aroma: 2,4-decadienal (seaweed).
Pork + eggtop 30% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together10,387 recipes

Shared aroma: (e,e)-2,4-decadienal (fatty, deep fried).