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Croutons of Ham

A savory dish of ham and herbs served on toasted bread croutons.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 7 ingredients
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Why it works: Parsley and pepper 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 ↓

Croutons of Ham

Ingredients

Directions

  1. In a saucepan, combine chopped ham, butter, parsley, chives, egg yolk, and cayenne pepper.

  2. Warm the mixture until the egg yolk just sets.

  3. Serve the mixture on croutons of toast arranged in a pyramid form.

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. Parsley + peppertop 2% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together34,122 recipes

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

  2. Parsley + chivetop 3% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together2,150 recipes

    Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).

  3. Chive + peppertop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together2,885 recipes

    Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).

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

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

  5. Butter + chivetop 16% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together2,097 recipes

    Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).

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

What each ingredient does

Egg yolk
Sets when warmed, binding the mixture and giving it a thick, spreadable body.
Butter
Adds richness and a smooth mouthfeel that carries the flavor of the other ingredients.
Chopped ham
Provides the savory, salty meat flavor that forms the base of the topping.

The step that matters

Warm the mixture until the egg yolk just sets. Egg yolk proteins coagulate gently at moderate heat, thickening the mixture. If the heat is too high or the mixture is left too long, the proteins tighten too far, turning grainy or scrambled instead of smooth.

Swap the chive

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

  1. Shallotfits about as well
  2. Carrotfits about as well
  3. Capsicumfits about as well
  4. Chivethe original

Fit is the average pairing score against ham, butter, parsley, egg, 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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