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Ham Toast

Ham Toast is a savory dish of ham and egg yolk mixture spread on toast.

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.

  2. Chop the ham finely.

Make the mixture

  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 and garnish with parsley.

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

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

  3. Butter + parsleytop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together28,563 recipes

    Shared aroma: trans-2-hexenal (green, leafy).

  4. Ham + buttertop 16% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together5,475 recipes

    Shared aroma: trans-2-decenal (waxy, orange).

  5. 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

Egg yolks
Thicken the mixture as they set and bind it into a smooth, spreadable custard.
Lean ham
Provides the savory meat base that gives the spread its main flavor.
Butter
Adds richness and a smooth mouthfeel to the mixture.
Cream
Adds moisture and softness, loosening the egg mixture for a creamy texture.

The step that matters

Cooking the mixture over low heat while stirring. Egg yolks thicken when gently heated, but high heat or no stirring can scramble them into lumps. Low heat with constant stirring keeps the mixture smooth and evenly thickened.

Swap the parsley

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

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

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