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Ham Omelet

A fried patty of ham, eggs, and mashed potatoes.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 4 ingredients
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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 ↓

Ham Omelet

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. In a bowl, combine the cold ham and beaten eggs.

  2. Add enough mashed potatoes to thicken the mixture.

  3. Form the mixture into small cakes or patties.

Cook

  1. Fry the patties in hot lard until golden brown.

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

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

  2. Ham + potatotop 24% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together127 recipes

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

  3. Egg + potatotop 29% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together4,978 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

Eggs
Bind the ham and potato together and set firmly when cooked.
Mashed potatoes
Thicken the mixture so it holds its shape as patties.
Cold ham
Provides the savoury flavour and meaty body of the patties.
Lard
Conducts heat for frying and encourages golden browning on the surface.

The step that matters

Fry the patties in hot lard until golden brown. Frying in hot fat browns the surface through the Maillard reaction, giving flavour and colour. If the fat is not hot enough, the patties absorb more grease and stay pale and soggy.

Swap the potato

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (ham, egg):

  1. Asparagusfits better
  2. Mustardfits better
  3. Leekfits better
  4. Potatothe original

Fit is the average pairing score against ham, egg. Candidates are from the same food group and used in at least 100 recipes.

“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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