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Eggs with Ham and Tomatoes

A skillet dish of eggs cooked with ham, tomatoes, parsley, butter, milk, pepper, and salt.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 8 ingredients
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Why it works: Parsley and pepper match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 2% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 34,122 recipes. Both carry 4'-methylacetophenone, which smells bitter almond. The science ↓

Eggs with Ham and Tomatoes

Ingredients

Directions

  1. Melt the butter in a skillet over medium heat.

  2. Add the ham and tomatoes, cooking until thoroughly hot.

  3. Stir in the parsley, pepper, and salt.

  4. Beat the eggs with the milk, then pour them into the skillet.

  5. Cook until the eggs are set, stirring gently.

  6. Serve warm.

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. Parsley + peppertop 2% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together34,122 recipes

    Shared aroma: 4'-methylacetophenone (bitter almond).

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

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

  3. Tomato + peppertop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together17,923 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).

  4. Tomato + parsleytop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together5,398 recipes

    Shared aroma: 4'-methylacetophenone (bitter almond).

  5. Tomato + milktop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together2,226 recipes

    Shared aroma: 1-octen-3-one (mushroom, metallic).

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 give the dish its main body and structure.
Butter
Adds fat and richness and keeps the eggs from sticking to the skillet.
Ham
Contributes savory, salty flavor and a chewy bite against the soft eggs.
Stewed tomatoes
Add moisture, acidity, and a bright flavor that balances the rich eggs.
Milk
Thins the beaten eggs slightly, producing a softer, more tender set.

The step that matters

Cook until the eggs are set, stirring gently. Eggs turn from liquid to curds as their proteins coagulate with heat. Overcooking or stirring too hard squeezes out moisture and makes them dry and rubbery, so remove them while still soft and glossy.

Swap the tomato

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (ham, parsley, butter, egg, pepper, milk):

  1. Potatofits better
  2. Capsicumfits better
  3. Carrotfits better
  4. Tomatothe original

Fit is the average pairing score against ham, parsley, butter, egg, pepper, milk. Candidates are from the same food group and used in at least 100 recipes.

“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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