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Ham Toast

Ham Toast is a savory toast topped with a mixture of chopped ham, egg yolks, butter, cream, and red pepper.

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

Make the topping

  1. In a pan, combine the chopped ham, beaten egg yolks, butter, cream, and red pepper.

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

Assemble and serve

  1. Spread the mixture over thin slices of buttered toast.

  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 + 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 cook and set, giving it a creamy, spreadable body.
Ham
Provides the savory, meaty flavor that forms the main body of the topping.
Cream
Adds moisture and richness, keeping the mixture smooth rather than dry.
Butter
Adds fat for a rich flavor and smooth texture in the mixture.

The step that matters

Cook over low heat, stirring until the mixture thickens. Egg yolks set at gentle heat; high heat or no stirring can scramble them into lumps. Low heat and constant stirring give a smooth, thick custard-like topping.

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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