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Broiled Ham and Eggs

A dish of sliced ham broiled and topped with fried eggs, seasoned with pepper.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 4 ingredients
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Why it works: Ham and butter are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 16% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 5,475 recipes. Both carry trans-2-decenal, which smells waxy, orange. The science ↓

Broiled Ham and Eggs

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the ham

  1. Soak the ham if it is raw, as you would for fried ham.

  2. Broil the ham over a clear red fire for 3 to 5 minutes, then arrange on a hot platter.

Cook the eggs

  1. Heat the butter in a frying pan until it sizzles but does not brown.

  2. Drop the eggs into the pan and cook for 3 minutes.

  3. Lift the eggs with a spatula and place them on the broiled ham.

  4. Dust with pepper and serve.

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

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

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

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

  3. Butter + eggtop 17% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together118,967 recipes

    Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).

  4. Butter + peppertop 21% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together85,593 recipes

    Shared aroma: trans-2-nonenal (cardboard, fatty).

  5. Ham + peppertop 23% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together6,058 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

Sliced ham
Provides savory, salty flavor and a meaty base for the eggs.
Butter
Fat for frying the eggs, adding richness and helping prevent sticking.
Eggs
Set when cooked, forming the soft, rich topping over the ham.

The step that matters

Heat the butter until it sizzles but does not brown. Butter that browns or burns turns bitter and can scorch the eggs, while butter that is just sizzling cooks the eggs gently and evenly.

“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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