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Fried Ham

Fried Ham is a dish of sliced ham fried until browned, seasoned with pepper and salt, served with fried eggs.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 4 ingredients
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Why it works: Ham and pepper are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 23% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 6,058 recipes. Both carry 2,4-decadienal, which smells seaweed. The science ↓

Fried Ham

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the ham

  1. Slice the ham and place it in a pot with enough cold water to cover it.

  2. Heat the water until hot, then pour it off the ham.

Fry and serve

  1. Fry the ham slowly in a pan until browned on both sides.

  2. Season the ham with pepper and serve.

  3. Fry eggs in the same pan or separately in enough fat to prevent burning, seasoning with salt and pepper.

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 + 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

Ham
Provides the main meat, and its surface browns in the pan for savoury flavour.
Fat for frying
Conducts heat evenly and keeps the ham and eggs from sticking and burning.
Pepper
Adds a sharp, aromatic bite to the finished ham.

The step that matters

Fry the ham slowly until browned on both sides. Low, steady heat lets the surface brown through Maillard reactions while the inside warms gently. Too much heat scorches the outside and leaves the meat dry and tough.

“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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