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Eggs, Scrambled, and Ham

A quick scrambled egg dish with ham, served over buttered toast.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
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Why it works: Butter and milk are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 7% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 81,283 recipes. Both carry (z)-4-heptenal, which smells biscuit, cream. The science ↓

Eggs, Scrambled, and Ham

Ingredients

Directions

Make the scrambled eggs

  1. Melt the butter in a stewpan.

  2. Add the ham and heat gradually in the butter.

  3. Beat the eggs, add the milk, and season with salt and pepper.

  4. Pour the egg mixture into the stewpan and stir until the eggs begin to set.

Serve

  1. Prepare the hot toast and pile the scrambled eggs on top.

  2. Serve immediately.

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 + milktop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together81,283 recipes

    Shared aroma: (z)-4-heptenal (biscuit, cream).

  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. Egg + buttertop 17% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together118,967 recipes

    Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).

  5. Egg + milktop 18% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together88,785 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
Set into soft curds that form the body of the dish.
Butter
Adds richness and keeps the eggs from sticking while they cook gently.
Milk
Loosens the egg mixture so the scrambled eggs stay tender and moist.
Ham
Adds savoury flavour and salt-cured taste to the eggs.

The step that matters

Stir the eggs as they begin to set. Egg proteins set quickly over moderate heat. Stirring keeps curds small and soft, while leaving them still causes rubbery, overcooked patches.

“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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