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To Fry Ham

A dish of sliced smoked ham fried and finished with a cream sauce.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 3 ingredients
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Why it works: Ham and cream are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 22% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 1,370 recipes. Both carry 1-octen-3-one, which smells mushroom, metallic. The science ↓

To Fry Ham

Ingredients

Directions

Fry the ham

  1. Heat a skillet over medium heat.

  2. Add enough grease to prevent sticking.

  3. Fry the ham slowly until cooked through.

  4. Increase heat and fry until nicely browned.

  5. Transfer to a platter.

Finish and serve

  1. Pour cream into the skillet and mix with the grease.

  2. Pour the cream mixture over the ham and serve.

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 + creamtop 22% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together1,370 recipes

    Shared aroma: 1-octen-3-one (mushroom, metallic).

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

What each ingredient does

Smoked ham
Is the main protein; frying browns its surface and firms the meat for a savory crust.
Cream
Adds richness and moisture, and mixing it with the pan grease helps it coat the ham as a sauce.

The step that matters

Increase heat and fry until nicely browned. Browning happens through the Maillard reaction, which needs a hot surface and dry meat. Raising the heat only after the ham is cooked through gives color and flavor without drying out the interior.

“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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