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 Salad
Ingredients
Directions
Prepare the ham
Chop the ham very fine or use a meat cutter.
Mix the ham with enough Salad Dressing to make it moist but not sloppy.
Arrange and serve
On a china platter, arrange washed and dried curled parsley around the edge.
Place a row of sliced hard boiled eggs next to the parsley.
Heap the ham mixture in an oblong mound in the center of the platter.
If preferred, cut the eggs in halves, remove the yolks, and mix them with the chopped ham, then fill the whites with the mixture.
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).
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Parsley + eggtop 21% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together18,765 recipes
Shared aroma: 2,4-decadienal (seaweed).
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Ham + parsleytop 24% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together3,249 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
- Chopped ham
- Forms the bulk of the salad and provides its savory, meaty flavor.
- Salad dressing
- Adds moisture and binds the chopped ham into a spreadable mixture.
- Hard boiled eggs
- Add creamy texture and richness alongside the ham.
The step that matters
Mix the ham with the dressing to the right moisture. Too little dressing leaves the ham dry and crumbly, while too much makes the mixture watery and loose, so it cannot hold a mound on the platter.
Swap the parsley
How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (ham, egg):
- Nutmegfits about as well
- Capersfits about as well
- Parsleythe original
- White pepperfits about as well
Fit is the average pairing score against ham, egg. 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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