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 ↓
Fried Ham and Eggs
Ingredients
Directions
Prepare the ham
Cut the ham into even slices and remove the rind.
Soak the ham in hot water for 10 minutes.
Dry the ham with a cloth.
Cook and serve
Place the ham in a cold frying pan and heat it over the fire, turning the slices 3 or 4 times while cooking.
Keep the cooked ham warm on a dish in front of the fire while poaching the eggs.
Poach the eggs.
Slip the poached eggs onto the slices of ham before serving.
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.
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Ham + eggtop 17% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together4,526 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
- Slices of ham
- Provides the main savoury meat base that the eggs are served on.
- Eggs
- Poached eggs add richness and a soft, creamy yolk that coats the ham.
The step that matters
Start the ham in a cold pan. Heating the ham gradually from cold lets its fat render slowly and keeps the slices from toughening or drying out. Turning them a few times helps them cook evenly.
“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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