Name: Poached Eggs with Ham
Ingredients: eggs; thin slices of broiled ham; poivrade sauce; liquid meat glaze

Why it works: Ham and meat are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 13% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 1,095 recipes. Both carry 1-octen-3-one, which smells mushroom, metallic. The science ↓

Poached Eggs with Ham

Ingredients

eggs
thin slices of broiled ham
poivrade sauce
liquid meat glaze

Directions

Poach the eggs and trim them neatly.
Place the poached eggs on thin oval-cut slices of broiled ham.
Pour poivrade sauce around the eggs.
Sprinkle a few drops of liquid meat glaze over the top.
Serve immediately.

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.

Ham + meattop 13% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together1,095 recipes

Shared aroma: 1-octen-3-one (mushroom, metallic).
Egg + hamtop 17% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together4,526 recipes

Shared aroma: 2,4-decadienal (seaweed).
Ham + saucetop 22% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked together1,314 recipes

Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).
Sauce + meattop 22% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked together2,167 recipes
Egg + meattop 22% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together6,432 recipes

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