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Tasse Ham

Eggs filled with a ham and breadcrumb mixture, served with cream sauce.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 10 ingredients
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Why it works: Pepper and parsley match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 2% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 34,122 recipes. Both carry 4'-methylacetophenone, which smells bitter almond. The science ↓

Tasse Ham

Ingredients

Directions

Make the filling

  1. Remove shells from eggs, slice a thin piece from each end, cut in half, and carefully remove the yolks.

  2. Keep the whites warm.

  3. Cook bread crumbs and milk together until they form a paste.

  4. Stir in the ham, and season lightly with mustard and cayenne.

  5. Beat the egg and gradually add it to the mixture until it can be molded into balls.

  6. Form the mixture into balls the size of the yolks and place one in each egg white.

Assemble

  1. Make 1 pint of cream sauce.

  2. Arrange the stuffed egg whites around the edge of a hot platter.

  3. Pour the cream sauce in the center.

  4. Press the seasoned yolks through a vegetable press over the sauce.

Bake and serve

  1. Place in the oven for a few moments.

  2. Garnish with parsley.

  3. 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. Pepper + parsleytop 2% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together34,122 recipes

    Shared aroma: 4'-methylacetophenone (bitter almond).

  2. Bread + hamtop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together2,536 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-acetyl-1-pyrroline (popcorn, roasted).

  3. Mustard + parsleytop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together2,588 recipes

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

  4. Mustard + peppertop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together15,430 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).

  5. Bread + milktop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together11,466 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-undecenal (sweet).

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

What each ingredient does

Eggs
Whites hold the filling and set with gentle heat, while yolks give richness and body.
Bread crumbs
Absorb the milk and bind with the egg to form a moldable, paste-like filling.
Milk
Softens the bread crumbs and adds moisture so the filling stays tender.
Ham
Supplies the savory, salty flavor that defines the filling.

The step that matters

Adding the beaten egg to the filling. Add the egg gradually. Too much at once makes the mixture wet and loose, so it will not hold its shape when formed into balls.

Swap the mustard

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

  1. Capsicumfits better
  2. Carrotfits better
  3. Asparagusfits better
  4. Mustardthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against egg, bread, milk, ham, pepper, parsley. 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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