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Dropped Eggs Wtth Ham

Poached eggs served on buttered toast with grated ham.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 4 ingredients
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Why it works: Ham and butter are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 16% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 5,475 recipes. Both carry trans-2-decenal, which smells waxy, orange. The science ↓

Dropped Eggs Wtth Ham

Ingredients

Directions

Poach

  1. Heat a small pan of water until hot.

  2. Carefully drop the eggs into the water without breaking the yolks.

  3. Use a spoon to dip hot water onto the yolks until a white skin forms.

  4. Gently remove the eggs one at a time with an egg slice.

Finish and serve

  1. Place the eggs on buttered toast.

  2. Lightly rub the eggs with a little butter.

  3. Sprinkle grated ham or flour over the eggs.

  4. Serve immediately.

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 + buttertop 16% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together5,475 recipes

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

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

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

  3. Egg + buttertop 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
Provide the main body of the dish; the white sets around the yolk when poached.
Buttered toast
Gives a crisp, absorbent base that holds the eggs and soaks up runny yolk.
Grated ham
Adds salty, savoury flavour that contrasts with the rich egg.

The step that matters

Dipping hot water onto the yolks to form a white skin. The spooned hot water begins to set the egg white over the yolk, helping the egg hold its shape and keeping the yolk intact while the rest of the white cooks.

“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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