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Breakfast Dish

A baked dish of ham and eggs topped with bread and cracker crumbs, served hot.

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 ↓

Breakfast Dish

Oven, in the book's wordsA good oven

Ingredients

Directions

The book says “a good oven”. The 400°F (200°C) in the steps is the modern equivalent, not the book's own figure.

Prepare

  1. Mince the remnants of ham and season with pepper.

  2. Cover the bottom of scallop shells or small dishes with bread crumbs.

  3. Add a bit of butter to each dish.

Bake and serve

  1. Break an egg on top of each dish.

  2. Place in a 400°F (200°C) oven.

  3. When the eggs begin to cook, sprinkle with cracker crumbs and season with salt if needed.

  4. Serve hot.

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. Bread + eggtop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together22,662 recipes

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

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

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

  5. Pepper + breadtop 16% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together20,964 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 when baked, forming the creamy-firm centre of the dish.
Remnants of ham
Provides savoury, salty flavour as the main filling.
Bread crumbs
Form a base layer that soaks up moisture and adds light texture.
Butter
Adds fat for richness and helps the dish brown lightly.
Cracker crumbs
Sprinkled on top to add crunch and golden browning.

The step that matters

Adding the cracker crumbs as the eggs begin to cook. Add them too early and they may soak up moisture and burn; add them too late and the egg whites will be set before the topping can toast. Timing the topping to the first signs of setting gives a crisp top over a tender egg.

“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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