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Ham Toast

A toasted bread topped with a boiled ham and cream mixture, finished with breadcrumbs and parsley.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 5 ingredients
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Why it works: Butter and bread 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 Toast

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the ham

  1. Mince the ham finely.

  2. In a saucepan, combine the minced ham and cream or milk; boil for 5 minutes.

Assemble and brown

  1. Prepare well-buttered toast.

  2. Spread the ham mixture on the toast.

  3. Mix bread crumbs with parsley and sprinkle on top.

  4. Brown under a salamander or in the oven.

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. Butter + breadtop 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. Butter + parsleytop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together28,563 recipes

    Shared aroma: trans-2-hexenal (green, leafy).

  5. Bread + parsleytop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together8,588 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

Minced ham
Forms the savory filling that makes up most of the topping.
Cream or milk
Adds moisture and softness to the ham mixture as it boils.
Bread crumbs
Form a crisp topping that browns when heated.

The step that matters

Brown under a salamander or in the oven. Bread crumbs brown quickly under high direct heat, so the topping can scorch before the surface is evenly golden. Watch it closely and remove it once it is lightly browned.

Swap the parsley

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (ham, cream, butter, bread):

  1. Nutmegfits better
  2. Celeryfits about as well
  3. Capersfits about as well
  4. Parsleythe original

Fit is the average pairing score against ham, cream, butter, bread. 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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