Why it works: Ham and egg are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 17% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 4,526 recipes. Both carry 2,4-decadienal, which smells seaweed. The science ↓
Mock Turtle Pie
Ingredients
Directions
Prepare the calf's head as for mock turtle or reserve a portion from making soup.
If not sufficient, add 2 calf's feet or 4 sheep's trotters and boil until tender.
Season well with zest, stock, and minced onions.
Lay slices of lean ham or bacon at the bottom of the dish.
Add the sliced mock turtle and top with egg-balls.
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.
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Ham + eggtop 17% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together4,526 recipes
Shared aroma: 2,4-decadienal (seaweed).
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Onion + hamtop 18% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together4,159 recipes
Shared aroma: gamma-nonanolactone (coconut, sweet).
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Onion + eggtop 34% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together23,333 recipes
Shared aroma: 2,4-decadienal (seaweed).
Onion and egg barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 23,333 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
Swap the onion
How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (ham, egg):
- Asparagusfits better
- Mustardfits better
- Leekfits better
- Onionthe original
Fit is the average pairing score against ham, egg. Candidates are from the same food group and used in at least 100 recipes.
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