Name: Ham and Poached Eggs
Ingredients: ½ pound lean ham, minced; hot coulis; eggs; paste for garnish

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 ↓

Ham and Poached Eggs

Ingredients

½ pound lean ham, minced
hot coulis
eggs
paste for garnish

Directions

Prepare

Heat the hot coulis in a pan.
Place the minced ham on a serving dish.

Assemble

Poach the eggs and place them on top of the minced ham.
Garnish with paste.

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.

Ham + eggtop 17% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked 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

What each ingredient does

Lean ham: Forms the savory base that the eggs rest on.
Eggs: Provide the poached topping, with a soft set and rich texture when cooked gently.
Hot coulis: Adds moisture and a smooth, saucy liquid to the dish.

“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.