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Fried Eggs, &C

Fried eggs served over bacon or ham, accompanied by a mustard‑vinegar sauce.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 5 ingredients
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Why it works: Mustard and vinegar are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 7% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 14,067 recipes. Both carry isobutyraldehyde, which smells malty, green. The science ↓

Fried Eggs, &C

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the meat

  1. Broil the slices of ham or bacon.

  2. Drain the ham or bacon.

  3. Place the ham or bacon in a deep plate.

Fry the eggs

  1. Heat a little boiling lard in a stewpan.

  2. Break the eggs into the lard.

  3. Fry until set.

  4. Turn the eggs.

  5. Fry for no more than 2 minutes.

  6. Remove the eggs with a skimmer.

  7. Drain the eggs.

Serve

  1. Serve hot over the bacon or ham.

  2. Prepare a strong cullis with mustard and vinegar (no salt) to serve underneath.

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. Mustard + vinegartop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together14,067 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  2. Ham + mustardtop 14% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together747 recipes

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

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

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

  4. Ham + vinegartop 22% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together737 recipes

    Shared aroma: 3-methylbutanol (malty, whiskey).

  5. Egg + mustardtop 28% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together9,210 recipes

    Shared aroma: (e)-2-octenal (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 a firm white and a softly cooked yolk when fried in hot lard.
Slices of ham or rashers of bacon
Provide a salty, savoury meat base for the fried eggs to sit on.
Boiling lard
Conducts heat quickly to cook the eggs and adds richness and browning.
Mustard
Adds sharp, pungent flavour that cuts through the richness of the fat.
Vinegar
Adds acidity that brightens the sauce and balances the fatty meat.

The step that matters

Fry for no more than 2 minutes. Eggs cook quickly in hot fat, so overcooking turns the yolk firm and the white rubbery. Timing the turn and removal keeps the yolk soft while the white sets.

“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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