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Scrambled Eggs with Ham

A quick fried dish of eggs mixed with chopped ham and milk, garnished with parsley.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 5 ingredients
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Why it works: Butter and milk are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 7% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 81,283 recipes. Both carry (z)-4-heptenal, which smells biscuit, cream. The science ↓

Scrambled Eggs with Ham

Ingredients

Directions

Cook the ham

  1. Melt the butter in a frying pan.

  2. Add the chopped ham and stir until thoroughly heated.

Scramble the eggs

  1. Mix the beaten eggs with the milk.

  2. Pour the egg mixture into the pan and cook until the eggs are set.

  3. Garnish with parsley before serving.

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. Butter + milktop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together81,283 recipes

    Shared aroma: (z)-4-heptenal (biscuit, cream).

  2. Butter + parsleytop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together28,563 recipes

    Shared aroma: trans-2-hexenal (green, leafy).

  3. Butter + hamtop 16% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together5,475 recipes

    Shared aroma: trans-2-decenal (waxy, orange).

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

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

  5. Butter + eggtop 17% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together118,967 recipes

    Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).

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

What each ingredient does

Eggs
Set into a soft, tender structure as they cook, forming the body of the dish.
Butter
Adds richness and fat, helping the eggs cook gently and stay moist.
Ham
Contributes savoury, salty flavour and a firmer, chewy bite against the soft eggs.
Milk
Dilutes the egg proteins slightly, producing a softer, creamier scramble.

The step that matters

Cook the eggs until just set. Egg proteins tighten quickly under heat and turn dry and rubbery if overcooked. Removing the pan from heat while the eggs still look slightly glossy lets residual heat finish them gently and keeps them moist.

Swap the parsley

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

  1. Nutmegfits better
  2. Cinnamonfits about as well
  3. Parsleythe original
  4. Capersfits about as well

Fit is the average pairing score against butter, ham, egg, milk. 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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