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Ham and Egg Lunch Loaf

A loaf made from ham, corned beef or salt pork, crackers, and eggs, baked until set.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 4 ingredients
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Why it works: Ham and beef are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 15% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 1,729 recipes. Both carry 2-acetyl-1-pyrroline, which smells popcorn, roasted. The science ↓

Ham and Egg Lunch Loaf

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. Chop the remnants of cold, boiled ham, corned beef, or salt pork.

  2. Add crushed crackers and 3 to 6 eggs, depending on the amount of meat.

  3. Mix well and pour into a round baking pan or an empty spice box.

Bake and serve

  1. Bake until set, then let cool before slicing.

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 + beeftop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,729 recipes

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

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

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

  3. Beef + eggtop 31% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together8,305 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).

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

What each ingredient does

Eggs
Bind the chopped meat and crackers together and set into a firm, sliceable loaf.
Crushed crackers
Absorb moisture and add body so the loaf holds together when sliced.
Cold boiled ham
Provides the savory meat base and flavor of the loaf.

The step that matters

Bake until set, then let cool before slicing. Egg proteins firm up as they heat, so the loaf must be fully set before cutting. Cutting while hot can cause it to crumble, since the structure keeps firming as it cools.

“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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