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Ham Toast

A toast topped with a mixture of cooked ham, butter, cream, egg yolk, pepper, and salt.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 8 ingredients
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Why it works: Butter and cream are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 8% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 41,516 recipes. Both carry delta-dodecalactone, which smells sweet, creamy. The science ↓

Ham Toast

Ingredients

Directions

Make the ham topping

  1. Melt the butter in a pan.

  2. Add the chopped ham and season well with pepper and salt.

  3. Stir in the egg yolk and cream over gentle heat until hot but not curdled.

Serve

  1. Pile the mixture on the rounds of toast and sprinkle with coralline pepper.

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. Butter + creamtop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together41,516 recipes

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

  2. Ham + buttertop 16% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together5,475 recipes

    Shared aroma: trans-2-decenal (waxy, orange).

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

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

  4. Butter + eggtop 17% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together118,967 recipes

    Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).

  5. Butter + peppertop 21% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together85,593 recipes

    Shared aroma: trans-2-nonenal (cardboard, fatty).

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

What each ingredient does

Egg yolk
Thickens the mixture gently as it heats and binds it into a creamy topping.
Butter
Adds fat and richness, carrying flavour through the ham mixture.
Cooked ham
Provides the savoury meaty flavour that forms the core of the topping.
Cream
Adds moisture and softness, keeping the topping smooth and spreadable.

The step that matters

Stir in the egg yolk and cream over gentle heat until hot but not curdled.. Egg yolk proteins set when overheated and turn grainy or scrambled. Gentle heat lets the mixture thicken smoothly while staying creamy.

“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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