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Ham Noodles

A baked casserole of noodles, ham, eggs, cream, breadcrumbs, and butter.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 7 ingredients
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Why it works: Bread and butter are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 7% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 27,232 recipes. Both carry delta-decalactone, which smells sweet, creamy. The science ↓

Ham Noodles

Ingredients

Directions

The book gives no oven temperature. The 350°F (175°C) in the steps was added when the recipe was transcribed, as a starting point.

Prepare

  1. Boil the noodles in slightly salted water until tender.

  2. Chop the cold boiled ham very fine.

Assemble

  1. In a buttered baking dish, layer the noodles and ham alternately.

  2. Beat the eggs with the sweet cream and pour over the top.

  3. Cover with a layer of bread crumbs and dot with butter.

Bake

  1. Bake at 350°F (175°C) until light brown.

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. Bread + buttertop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together27,232 recipes

    Shared aroma: delta-decalactone (sweet, creamy).

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

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

  3. Cream + buttertop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together41,516 recipes

    Shared aroma: delta-dodecalactone (sweet, creamy).

  4. Egg + breadtop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together22,662 recipes

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

  5. Ham + buttertop 16% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together5,475 recipes

    Shared aroma: trans-2-decenal (waxy, orange).

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

What each ingredient does

Noodles
Form the body of the casserole and absorb the custard as it bakes.
Cold boiled ham
Adds savoury flavour and salty richness throughout the layers.
Eggs
Set the cream mixture into a custard that binds the noodles and ham.
Sweet cream
Adds moisture and richness so the custard stays tender when baked.
Bread crumbs
Form a crisp top that browns in the oven.
Butter
Adds fat that enriches the dish and promotes browning on top.

The step that matters

Bake until light brown. Baking too briefly leaves the egg and cream custard loose, while overbaking can make it dry and tough. Watch for a set centre and a light golden top.

“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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