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Bread

Ham Toast

Ham toast made by boiling ham, mixing with egg yolks, butter, cream, cayenne pepper, and spreading on toast, garnished with parsley.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 7 ingredients
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Why it works: Pepper and parsley match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 2% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 34,122 recipes. Both carry 4'-methylacetophenone, which smells bitter almond. The science ↓

Ham Toast

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the ham

  1. Boil the ham until cooked, then chop it finely.

Make the topping

  1. In a bowl, mix the chopped ham with the beaten egg yolks, butter, cream, and cayenne pepper.

  2. Cook the mixture over low heat, stirring until it thickens.

Serve

  1. Spread the mixture on hot toast with the crusts removed.

  2. Garnish with parsley before serving.

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. Pepper + parsleytop 2% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together34,122 recipes

    Shared aroma: 4'-methylacetophenone (bitter almond).

  2. Butter + breadtop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together27,232 recipes

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

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

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

  4. Butter + creamtop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together41,516 recipes

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

  5. Egg + breadtop 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

Egg yolks
Thicken the mixture as they set and bind it into a spreadable topping.
Butter
Adds richness and a smooth texture to the topping.
Cream
Adds moisture and softness, keeping the topping spreadable.
Lean ham
Provides the savory main flavor and body of the topping.

The step that matters

Cooking the mixture over low heat. Egg yolks thicken when heated gently, but high heat can scramble them into lumps. Low heat and constant stirring give a smooth, thickened topping.

Swap the parsley

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (ham, egg, butter, cream, pepper, bread):

  1. Nutmegfits about as well
  2. Parsleythe original
  3. Tarragonfits less well
  4. Celeryfits less well

Fit is the average pairing score against ham, egg, butter, cream, pepper, bread. 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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