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Fried Ham

Fried ham slices served with cooked eggs.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 2 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

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. Heat a frying pan over medium-high heat.

  2. Add the slices of ham and brown on both sides.

  3. Remove the ham from the pan.

Cook and serve

  1. In the remaining fat, cook the eggs until desired doneness.

  2. Serve the eggs around or on top of the ham.

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

Slices of ham
Browning on the surface gives the ham savoury, roasted flavour and a firmer texture.
Eggs
Proteins set as they cook, giving the dish its soft or firm texture and rich flavour.

The step that matters

Browning the ham on both sides. Searing over medium-high heat drives the Maillard reaction, creating colour and savoury flavour. Too little heat or crowding the pan steams the ham instead, leaving it pale and bland.

“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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