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Mushrooms with Ham

A sautéed mixture of mushrooms and ham with breadcrumbs, eggs, and cream, served on toast.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
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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 ↓

Mushrooms with Ham

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. Mince the ham and mushrooms.

Cook the filling

  1. Sauté them in the butter for about 8 minutes.

  2. Add the bread crumbs and pepper.

  3. Mix together the eggs and cream. Stir them in.

  4. Stir until the mixture thickens.

Serve

  1. Serve at once on toast.

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. Mushroom + buttertop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together12,525 recipes

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

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

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

  4. Butter + creamtop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together41,516 recipes

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

  5. Mushroom + breadtop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together2,536 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).

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

What each ingredient does

Eggs
Set and thicken the mixture as they cook, binding it into a creamy filling.
Mushrooms
Release moisture and savory flavor as they brown in butter, giving the filling body.
Butter
Carries the sauté, adding fat and richness while browning the mushrooms and ham.
Bread crumbs
Absorb liquid and help the filling hold together with a soft, tender texture.
Cream
Adds moisture and richness, keeping the egg mixture smooth and creamy when heated.

The step that matters

Stir until the mixture thickens. Eggs set when heated, but overcooking makes them curdle and turn grainy. Stir over gentle heat and stop once the filling is thick and smooth.

“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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