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Ham Toast

A toast topped with a mixture of milk, butter, ham, egg yolk, and breadcrumbs, browned before serving.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 6 ingredients
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Why it works: Milk and butter 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 ↓

Ham Toast

Ingredients

Directions

Make the ham mixture

  1. In a clean pan, combine the milk or cream, butter, and chopped ham.

  2. Cook over medium heat for 5 minutes.

  3. Remove from heat and stir in the egg yolk carefully over low heat for 2 minutes.

Assemble and serve

  1. Spread the mixture thickly on hot buttered toast.

  2. Sprinkle breadcrumbs on top and brown it before the fire.

  3. Serve hot.

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. Milk + buttertop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together81,283 recipes

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

  2. Butter + hamtop 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. Milk + eggtop 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

Milk or cream
Adds moisture and makes the ham mixture soft and spreadable.
Butter
Adds fat and richness, giving the mixture a smooth, rich texture.
Ham
Provides the savoury main flavour and the bulk of the filling.
Egg yolk
Thickens the mixture as it gently heats and adds richness to bind it.
Breadcrumbs
Form a crisp topping that browns when heated.

The step that matters

Stirring in the egg yolk. Egg yolk thickens as its proteins gently set, but too much heat makes it scramble into lumps. Stir it in carefully over low heat so the mixture stays smooth and 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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