Name: Ham Paddies
Ingredients: 1 cup ham scraps; 1 egg; ¼ teaspoon pepper; ½ cup milk

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 Paddies

Ingredients

1 cup ham scraps
1 egg
¼ teaspoon pepper
½ cup milk

Directions

The book gives no oven temperature. The 350°F (175°C) in the steps was added when the recipe was transcribed, as a starting point.

Prepare

Chop the ham scraps finely.
In a bowl, combine the chopped ham, egg, milk, and pepper.

Bake and serve

Pour the mixture into muffin pans and bake at 350°F (175°C) for 20 minutes.
Break an egg on top of each patty and bake until the egg is done.

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).
Egg + milktop 18% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together88,785 recipes

Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).
Pepper + milktop 22% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together26,984 recipes

Shared aroma: ethyl 2-methylbutyrate (fruity, apple).
Ham + milktop 23% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together1,089 recipes

Shared aroma: gamma-nonanolactone (coconut, sweet).
Ham + peppertop 23% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked together6,058 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

Ham scraps: Provides the savory meat base that forms the body of each patty.
Egg: Binds the chopped ham together so the patties hold their shape when baked.
Milk: Adds moisture so the mixture stays tender rather than dry as it bakes.

“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.