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 ↓
Fried Ham and Eggs
Ingredients
Directions
Soak the ham in hot water for 15 minutes if it's too salty, then dry it with a cloth.
Fry the ham in a frying pan over medium heat until browned and cooked through, then transfer to a hot platter.
Crack the eggs into a saucer one at a time, then slip them into the ham drippings in the frying pan.
Spoon the hot drippings over the eggs until a white film forms on top, then remove the eggs from the pan.
Place the eggs on the ham or serve them on a separate platter, and sprinkle lightly with salt.
For gravy, drain the drippings, add a little hot water to the pan, simmer for a minute, and pour over the 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
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