Why it works: Egg and ham are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 17% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 4,526 recipes. Both carry 2,4-decadienal, which smells seaweed. The science ↓
Ham Toast
Ingredients
Directions
The book gives no oven temperature. The 350°F (175°C) in the steps was added when the recipe was transcribed, as a starting point.
Make the ham mixture
Mince the ham and pound it with the yolk of the hard-boiled egg.
Add the raw egg and seasoning, and stir over low heat until hot.
Add cochineal or carmine for color if desired.
Assemble and bake
Spread the mixture on the toast slices.
Sprinkle with the white of the egg passed through a sieve.
Place in the oven at 350°F (175°C) to heat up.
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.
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Egg + hamtop 17% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked 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
- Ham
- Provides the savory meat base and most of the flavor.
- Egg yolk
- Pounds into the ham to bind it into a smooth, spreadable paste.
- Raw egg
- Sets when stirred over heat, helping the mixture hold together on the toast.
- Egg white
- Sieved and sprinkled on top, giving a light, delicate finish after heating.
The step that matters
Stirring the raw egg over low heat. Gentle heat lets the raw egg thicken smoothly and bind the ham without scrambling into lumps. High heat can curdle the egg proteins and leave the mixture grainy.
“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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