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Ham Toast

A quick dish of simmered ham, gravy, bread crumbs, and optional cream served over buttered toast.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 5 ingredients
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Why it works: Ham and bread are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 7% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 2,536 recipes. Both carry 2-acetyl-1-pyrroline, which smells popcorn, roasted. The science ↓

Ham Toast

Ingredients

Directions

Make the ham mixture

  1. Combine finely minced ham, ¼ cup gravy, ¼ cup bread crumbs, and ¼ cup cream if using in a saucepan.

  2. Simmer the mixture until it is hot.

Serve

  1. Serve the hot mixture on buttered toast.

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

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

  2. Ham + creamtop 22% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together1,370 recipes

    Shared aroma: 1-octen-3-one (mushroom, metallic).

  3. Bread + creamtop 24% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together5,789 recipes

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

Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs

What each ingredient does

Finely minced ham
Provides the main savoury meat flavour and bulk of the topping.
Gravy
Adds moisture and savoury flavour that binds the ham into a spoonable mixture.
Bread crumbs
Absorb liquid from the gravy and cream, thickening the mixture to a spreadable texture.
Cream
Adds richness and moisture, softening the mixture and making it smoother.

The step that matters

Simmer until hot. Simmering heats the mixture through so the bread crumbs hydrate evenly and the ham is hot before serving. Stopping early can leave cold spots and a grainy, unevenly thickened topping.

“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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