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
Cut slices of ham quite thin and remove the rind.
Heat a frying pan over medium-high heat and fry the ham slices until crisp, about 3 minutes, turning often.
Transfer the cooked ham to a hot platter.
Rinse out the pan and return the clear grease to fry the eggs.
Break each egg separately into a saucer to check for bad eggs.
Gently slip each egg into the frying pan without turning them.
Spoon hot grease over the eggs while they fry for about 3 minutes.
Ensure the egg whites remain transparent so the yolks are visible.
Use a spatula to lift the eggs from the pan, trimming any discolored edges.
Place a fried egg on each slice of ham and serve hot.
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
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