Why it works: Ham and egg are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 17% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 4,526 recipes. Both carry 2,4-decadienal, which smells seaweed. The science ↓
Fried Ham and Eggs
Ingredients
Directions
Cut the ham into thin slices and remove the rind.
Heat a frying pan and cook the ham slices for about 3 minutes until crisp, turning often to avoid burning.
Transfer the cooked ham to a hot platter.
Drain excess grease from the pan, then return the clear grease to fry the eggs.
Crack each egg into a saucer to check for bad eggs, then gently slip each egg into the frying pan.
Do not turn the eggs; instead, spoon hot lard over them while frying.
Cook the eggs for about 3 minutes until the whites are transparent and the yolks are visible.
Remove the eggs with a slotted spoon, trim any discolored edges, and place one on each slice of ham before serving hot.
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.
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Ham + eggtop 17% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together4,526 recipes
Shared aroma: 2,4-decadienal (seaweed).
Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs
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