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 with Eggs
Ingredients
Directions
Prepare the ham
Cut slices of ham and remove the skin.
Soak the ham slices in cold water, then wash and rinse them.
Fry and serve
Heat a frying pan and fry the ham until well done.
Use a fork to remove the ham slices and place them on a serving dish.
Crack the eggs one by one and drop them into the ham juices.
Once the egg whites are set, remove them and place them on top of the ham.
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
What each ingredient does
- Ham
- Provides the savory, salty flavor and the fat and juices that cook the eggs.
- Eggs
- Set with heat to form the soft, cooked topping served over the ham.
The step that matters
Remove the eggs once the whites are set. Egg white proteins coagulate with heat and turn firm and opaque. Removing the eggs at that point keeps the yolks runny and tender instead of dry and chalky from overcooking.
“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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