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Sunnybank Ham and Eggs

A ham and egg dish featuring a seasoned ham mound topped with powdered yolk and surrounded by boiled egg whites.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 5 ingredients
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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 ↓

Sunnybank Ham and Eggs

Oven, in the book's wordsA moderate oven

Ingredients

Directions

The book says “a moderate oven”. The 350°F (175°C) in the steps is the modern equivalent, not the book's own figure.

Prepare the ham

  1. Moisten the minced ham with the seasoned stock in a saucepan and heat.

  2. Beat in the raw egg to bind the mixture.

  3. Form the ham mixture into a long-oval mound on a hot dish.

  4. Place the mound in a 350°F (175°C) oven until a slight crust forms.

Prepare the eggs

  1. Remove the shells from the boiled eggs.

  2. Cut the boiled egg whites into thin circles.

  3. Sieve the boiled egg yolks to powder.

Assemble and garnish

  1. Cover the ham mound with the powdered yolks.

  2. Arrange the white rings around the base.

  3. Garnish with parsley.

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. Ham + eggtop 17% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together4,526 recipes

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

  2. Egg + parsleytop 21% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together18,765 recipes

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

  3. Ham + parsleytop 24% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together3,249 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

Cold ham
Provides the main meaty body and flavour of the mound.
Raw egg
Binds the minced ham together so the mound holds its shape.
Boiled eggs
Their sieved yolks form a powdered topping and the whites form decorative rings.
Seasoned stock
Moistens the ham so it stays tender and cohesive while heating.

The step that matters

Place the mound in the oven until a slight crust forms. Baking only briefly sets the beaten raw egg and dries the surface; overbaking can toughen the ham and make the mound dry and rubbery.

Swap the parsley

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

  1. Nutmegfits about as well
  2. Capersfits about as well
  3. Parsleythe original
  4. White pepperfits about as well

Fit is the average pairing score against 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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