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Scrambled Eggs with Ham

Scrambled eggs cooked with finely chopped ham and seasoned with salt and pepper.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 5 ingredients
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Why it works: Egg and ham 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 ↓

Scrambled Eggs with Ham

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. Cut the cold ham into very fine pieces.

Cook

  1. Warm the ham in a skillet with a little ham drippings.

  2. Break the eggs into the skillet.

  3. Season with salt and pepper, and stir until nearly set.

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. Egg + hamtop 17% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together4,526 recipes

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

  2. Pepper + hamtop 23% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together6,058 recipes

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

  3. Egg + peppertop 33% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together50,580 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).

Egg and pepper barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 50,580 recipes: they work on texture and structure more than aroma.

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

What each ingredient does

Eggs
Set into soft curds that give the scrambled eggs their structure and tender texture.
Cold boiled or fried ham
Adds savory, salty flavor and a chewy bite that contrasts with the soft eggs.
Ham drippings
Provide fat that warms the ham and keeps the eggs from sticking and drying out.

The step that matters

Stir until nearly set. Egg proteins tighten quickly with heat. Removing the eggs while they still look slightly moist lets residual heat finish them, so they stay tender rather than rubbery and dry.

“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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