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 Relish
Ingredients
Directions
Make the relish
Scald the cream in a saucepan.
Rub the yolks of 2 hard-boiled eggs smooth with a little of the cream.
Add the yolk mixture to the cream with the chopped ham in a saucepan.
Press the whites of the 2 hard-boiled eggs through a sieve and add to the mixture.
Heat the mixture thoroughly and serve on a hot dish.
Garnish and serve
Slice the remaining hard-boiled egg over the ham before serving.
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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Ham + creamtop 22% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together1,370 recipes
Shared aroma: 1-octen-3-one (mushroom, metallic).
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Ham + peppertop 23% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together6,058 recipes
Shared aroma: 2,4-decadienal (seaweed).
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Cream + peppertop 23% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together21,449 recipes
Shared aroma: acetic acid (sour, vinegar).
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Cream + eggtop 24% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together42,166 recipes
Shared aroma: acetic acid (sour, vinegar).
Cream and pepper barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 21,449 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
What each ingredient does
- Cold boiled ham
- Provides the savoury meaty base that the rest of the relish is built around.
- Cream
- Adds moisture and richness, giving the relish a smooth, creamy texture when heated.
- Hard-boiled eggs
- Yolks blend into the cream for richness and body, while sieved whites add a fine, soft texture.
The step that matters
Rubbing the yolks smooth with cream. Lumps of cooked yolk stay grainy if not worked smooth with liquid first. Blending them with a little cream before adding the rest helps them disperse evenly into the mixture.
“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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