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Creamed Ham and Poached Eggs

A toast topped with a creamy ham sauce and poached eggs, garnished with parsley.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 8 ingredients
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Why it works: Pepper and parsley match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 2% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 34,122 recipes. Both carry 4'-methylacetophenone, which smells bitter almond. The science ↓

Creamed Ham and Poached Eggs

Ingredients

Directions

The book gives no cooking times; the times in the steps were added in transcription, so check for doneness rather than trusting the clock.

Make the ham sauce

  1. In a saucepan, melt the butter over medium heat.

  2. Stir in the cornstarch and cook for 1 minute.

  3. Gradually add the milk, stirring until the sauce thickens.

  4. Season with pepper and mix in the chopped ham.

Assemble and serve

  1. Spread the ham mixture over the toast.

  2. Poach the eggs and place one on each toast round.

  3. Season the eggs lightly and garnish with curly parsley before serving.

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. Pepper + parsleytop 2% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together34,122 recipes

    Shared aroma: 4'-methylacetophenone (bitter almond).

  2. Butter + milktop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together81,283 recipes

    Shared aroma: (z)-4-heptenal (biscuit, cream).

  3. Butter + parsleytop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together28,563 recipes

    Shared aroma: trans-2-hexenal (green, leafy).

  4. Butter + hamtop 16% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together5,475 recipes

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

  5. Ham + eggtop 17% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked 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

What each ingredient does

Butter
Enriches the sauce base and adds richness and flavour.
Cornstarch
Thickens the milk into a smooth, creamy sauce when heated.
Milk
Forms the liquid base of the sauce, adding creaminess.
Cooked ham
Provides savoury flavour and substance in the creamed topping.
Eggs
Provide a soft, runny yolk that enriches the toast topping.

The step that matters

Thickening the sauce. Cornstarch thickens only when the milk is heated and stirred, and it can clump if added too quickly. Adding the milk gradually while stirring keeps the sauce smooth and lets the starch swell evenly.

Swap the parsley

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (butter, milk, pepper, ham, egg):

  1. Parsleythe original
  2. Nutmegfits about as well
  3. Cinnamonfits less well
  4. Thymefits less well

Fit is the average pairing score against butter, milk, pepper, ham, egg. Candidates are from the same food group and used in at least 100 recipes.

“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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