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Ham and Eggs

A dish of sliced ham fried in its own fat with eggs, seasoned with pepper.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 5 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 ↓

Ham and Eggs

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the ham

  1. Cut slices of ham into equal sizes.

  2. Cover the slices with boiling water.

  3. Cook for 10 minutes.

  4. Let them cool.

  5. Remove the rind from the ham.

Fry the ham

  1. Fry the ham in its own fat until browned.

  2. Place the ham on a hot dish.

  3. Strain the fat and return it to the pan with a little butter.

Fry the eggs and serve

  1. When the pan is hot, break in the eggs and fry on one side.

  2. Trim the ragged edges of the eggs.

  3. Lay the eggs on the ham.

  4. Dust with pepper. 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

Eggs
Their proteins set when heated, forming the white layer that gives the dish its main body.
Ham
Provides savory, salty flavor, and its own fat browns for frying.
Butter
Adds richness and flavor to the pan fat used for frying the eggs.

The step that matters

Break the eggs into a hot pan. A hot pan sets the egg whites quickly, so they hold their shape and do not spread. If the pan is too cool, the whites spread thin and cook unevenly, and the eggs can stick and tear when turned or lifted.

“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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