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For Lunch

A cold ham and egg salad with mustard, vinegar, and salt, served chilled.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 5 ingredients
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Why it works: Mustard and vinegar are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 7% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 14,067 recipes. Both carry isobutyraldehyde, which smells malty, green. The science ↓

For Lunch

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. Mince the cold ham finely.

  2. Chop the hard-boiled eggs and add to the ham.

  3. Mix in the mustard, vinegar, and salt.

Chill and serve

  1. Put the mixture in a mold and refrigerate until cold.

  2. Cut into thin slices or spread on bread for sandwiches.

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. Mustard + vinegartop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together14,067 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  2. Ham + mustardtop 14% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together747 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-acetyl-1-pyrroline (popcorn, roasted).

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

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

  4. Ham + vinegartop 22% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together737 recipes

    Shared aroma: 3-methylbutanol (malty, whiskey).

  5. Egg + mustardtop 28% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together9,210 recipes

    Shared aroma: (e)-2-octenal (fatty, green).

Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs

What each ingredient does

Cold ham
Provides the meaty base and savory flavor of the salad.
Hard-boiled eggs
Add body and creamy texture, binding the minced mixture together.
Prepared mustard
Adds sharp, pungent flavor that cuts through the richness of the ham and eggs.
Vinegar
Adds acidity that brightens the flavor and balances the savory ingredients.

The step that matters

Refrigerate until cold. Chilling firms the mixture so it holds together and can be sliced cleanly. Cutting it before it is fully cold can cause it to crumble or smear.

“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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