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 ↓
Ham and Eggs
Ingredients
Directions
Prepare the fat
Fry the ham as directed until fully cooked.
Transfer the fat from the frying pan to a basin and scrape off any salt.
Return the fat to the pan and add ½ cup of lard.
Bring the mixture to a boil and break in the eggs.
Cook and serve
Spoon the boiling fat over the eggs while they cook.
Cook the eggs for 3 minutes for underdone or 4 minutes for well done.
Serve the eggs on slices of ham.
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).
Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs
What each ingredient does
- Ham
- Provides savoury, salty flavour and a meaty base for the dish.
- Lard
- Adds fat for frying, carrying heat to the eggs and giving a rich flavour.
- Eggs
- Set when cooked in hot fat, forming the main body of the dish.
The step that matters
Spooning the boiling fat over the eggs. Hot fat spooned over the eggs cooks the whites and tops of the yolks without flipping them. If the fat is not hot enough, the whites stay runny and the cook time becomes unreliable.
“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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