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 ↓
Cold Boiled Ham
Ingredients
Directions
Cook the meat
Boil the ham or corned beef until fully cooked.
Leave the meat in the water until it cools completely.
Serve
Slice the meat and arrange it on a platter.
Garnish with slices of hard-boiled egg and lemon.
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).
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Egg + lemontop 19% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together44,316 recipes
Shared aroma: (e,e)-2,4-decadienal (fatty, deep fried).
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Ham + lemontop 29% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together1,788 recipes
Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).
Egg and lemon barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 44,316 recipes: they work on texture and structure more than aroma.
Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs
What each ingredient does
- Ham or corned beef
- Is the main protein, cooked by boiling until fully done and then served sliced.
The step that matters
Leave the meat in the water until it cools completely. Cooling slowly in the cooking liquid helps the meat stay moist and tender, because it avoids the sudden temperature drop that squeezes out juices when meat is moved straight to a cold surface.
“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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