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Eggs with Ham

Eggs baked with ham, breadcrumbs, sauce, and butter.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 7 ingredients
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Why it works: Sauce and butter are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 15% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 15,338 recipes. Both carry ethanol, which smells alcoholic, ethereal. The science ↓

Eggs with Ham

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.

Prepare

  1. Preheat the oven to 350°F (175°C).

  2. Butter 6 ramekins.

  3. Season the ham with pepper and moisten with the sauce or gravy. Add a few drops of mushroom ketchup or any sauce you prefer.

  4. Divide the mixture into the ramekins.

Bake and serve

  1. Carefully add the eggs, keeping the yolks whole. Sprinkle with salt and pepper.

  2. Cover with a thin layer of breadcrumbs. Place small pieces of butter on top.

  3. Bake until the eggs are set, about 15 to 20 minutes.

  4. Serve in the ramekins.

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. Sauce + buttertop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together15,338 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).

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

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

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

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

Sauce and butter barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 15,338 recipes: they work on texture and structure more than aroma.

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

What each ingredient does

Eggs
Set into a firm custard-like structure as they cook, holding the dish together.
Ham
Adds savoury, meaty flavour to the base beneath the eggs.
Butter
Adds richness and helps the breadcrumbs brown on top.
Browned breadcrumbs
Form a crisp, golden topping that contrasts with the soft eggs.
Sauce or gravy
Moistens the ham so the base stays juicy rather than dry.

The step that matters

Baking until the eggs are just set. Egg proteins set with heat and turn rubbery if overcooked, so the whites should be firm while the yolks stay soft and runny. Watching the eggs rather than the clock helps avoid overcooking.

“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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