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Ham, with Eggs and Vegetable Marrow

A dish of broiled ham, boiled marrow, poached eggs, served on fried bread with parsley sauce.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 6 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, with Eggs and Vegetable Marrow

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. Broil the ham and cut it into even-sized pieces.

  2. Boil or steam the marrow, cutting it into pieces larger than the ham.

  3. Poach the eggs.

Assemble and serve

  1. On a hot dish, lay slices of fried bread or toast.

  2. Place the ham on the bread and an egg on each piece of marrow.

  3. Arrange the marrow around the dish, sprinkle the eggs with chopped parsley, and pour the parsley sauce over the ham.

  4. Serve very hot.

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. Egg + breadtop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together22,662 recipes

    Shared aroma: (e)-2-octenal (fatty, green).

  3. Parsley + breadtop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together8,588 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2,4-decadienal (seaweed).

  4. Ham + eggtop 17% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together4,526 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2,4-decadienal (seaweed).

  5. Egg + parsleytop 21% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together18,765 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

Eggs
Poached eggs provide rich, set protein and a creamy yolk that moistens the dish.
Ham
Broiling browns the surface and concentrates its savoury, salty flavour.
Marrow
Boiling or steaming makes it tender and mild, adding moisture and a soft texture.
Parsley sauce
Its starch-thickened body coats the ham and adds moisture and a creamy richness.

The step that matters

Poach the eggs. Eggs poached in water that is too cool or too vigorously boiling will spread or break apart. Gentle simmering lets the whites set around the yolk while it stays soft.

Swap the parsley

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (ham, egg, sauce, bread):

  1. Capersfits better
  2. Nutmegfits about as well
  3. Parsleythe original
  4. Tarragonfits about as well

Fit is the average pairing score against ham, egg, sauce, bread. 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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