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Ham and Egg on Toast

A toasted bread topped with chopped ham and a cooked egg mixture.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 8 ingredients
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Why it works: Bread and butter are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 7% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 27,232 recipes. Both carry delta-decalactone, which smells sweet, creamy. The science ↓

Ham and Egg on Toast

Ingredients

Directions

The book gives no oven temperature. The 400°F (200°C) in the steps was added when the recipe was transcribed, as a starting point.

Prepare the toast

  1. Toast and butter the slices of bread.

  2. Spread the chopped ham on the toasted bread.

  3. Place the ham-topped toast in a 400°F (200°C) oven for about 3 minutes.

Make the egg topping

  1. In a saucepan, beat the eggs with the milk, pepper, and salt.

  2. Add 2 tablespoons of butter to the egg mixture and stir over medium heat until it begins to thicken. Remove from heat and beat for 1 minute.

  3. Spread the mixture over the ham on the toast.

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. Bread + buttertop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together27,232 recipes

    Shared aroma: delta-decalactone (sweet, creamy).

  2. Butter + milktop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together81,283 recipes

    Shared aroma: (z)-4-heptenal (biscuit, cream).

  3. Ham + breadtop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together2,536 recipes

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

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

    Shared aroma: 2-undecenal (sweet).

  5. Bread + eggtop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together22,662 recipes

    Shared aroma: (e)-2-octenal (fatty, green).

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

What each ingredient does

Eggs
Set into a custard that forms the topping as the mixture thickens with gentle heat.
Milk
Thins the eggs so the topping stays soft and spreadable rather than rubbery.
Butter
Adds richness and fat, giving the egg mixture a smoother, silkier texture.
Cold boiled or fried ham
Provides savory flavor and a meaty layer under the egg topping.

The step that matters

Stirring the eggs over medium heat. Eggs thicken as their proteins set; if the heat is too high or they are overcooked, they turn grainy and curdled instead of smooth. Stir constantly and remove from heat when they just begin to thicken, since they keep setting off the heat.

“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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