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Ham and Poached Eggs

A dish of browned ham topped with poached eggs, finished with butter and pepper.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 6 ingredients
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Why it works: Ham and butter are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 16% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 5,475 recipes. Both carry trans-2-decenal, which smells waxy, orange. The science ↓

Ham and Poached Eggs

Ingredients

Directions

Cook the ham

  1. Fry the ham slices until nicely browned.

Poach the eggs

  1. Grease a pan and add enough salted water to cover the eggs.

  2. Break the eggs into the pan with the water.

  3. Once the eggs are cooked, place them on the ham slices.

Finish and serve

  1. Top each egg with a small piece of butter and a sprinkle of pepper.

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

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

  2. Ham + eggtop 17% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together4,526 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2,4-decadienal (seaweed).

  3. Egg + buttertop 17% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together118,967 recipes

    Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).

  4. Butter + peppertop 21% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together85,593 recipes

    Shared aroma: trans-2-nonenal (cardboard, fatty).

  5. Ham + peppertop 23% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together6,058 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

Thinly sliced ham
Browns in the pan to add savoury flavour and a firmer base for the eggs.
Eggs
Set into the main body of the dish once their proteins cook in the hot water.
Butter
Melts over the warm eggs, adding richness and a smooth mouthfeel.

The step that matters

Poaching the eggs in gently salted water. Water that is kept at a gentle simmer rather than a hard boil lets egg whites set around the yolk without breaking apart or turning rubbery.

“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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