Name: Ham and Eggs, Country Style
Ingredients: small fillets of ham; eggs; chopped parsley

Why it works: Ham and egg are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 17% of all ingredient pairs, and 4,526 recipes mention both. Both carry 2,4-decadienal, which smells seaweed. The science ↓

Ham and Eggs, Country Style

Ingredients

small fillets of ham
eggs
chopped parsley

Directions

Parboil the ham fillets for 5 minutes and drain.
Fry the ham until almost done.
Break one egg over each piece of ham.
Baste the eggs with the dripping from the ham.
Sprinkle with chopped parsley and 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 aroma chemistry they share, and how many recipes mention both.

Ham + eggtop 17% of all pairs

Aroma overlapmoderate

Mentioned together4,526 recipes

Shared aroma: 2,4-decadienal (seaweed).
Egg + parsleytop 21% of all pairs

Aroma overlapmoderate

Mentioned together18,765 recipes

Shared aroma: 2,4-decadienal (seaweed).
Ham + parsleytop 24% of all pairs

Aroma overlaplow

Mentioned together3,249 recipes

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

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

Flavor stand-ins for the parsley

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

Nutmegabout as good a flavor fit
Capersabout as good a flavor fit
Parsleythe original
White pepperabout as good a flavor fit

Fit is the average pairing score against ham, egg. Candidates are from the same food group and used in at least 100 recipes. This compares flavor only: it does not check the job the ingredient does in the dish (bulk, moisture, acidity, structure).