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Ham Patties

Ham patties are baked patties made with chopped ham, breadcrumbs, butter, milk, and egg, topped with crumbs.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 9 ingredients
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Why it works: Bread and butter are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 7% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 27,232 recipes. Both carry delta-decalactone, which smells sweet, creamy. The science ↓

Ham Patties

Oven, in the book's wordsA quick oven

Ingredients

Directions

The book says “a quick oven”. The 400°F (200°C) in the steps is the modern equivalent, not the book's own figure.

Prepare

  1. Preheat the oven to 400°F (200°C).

  2. In a bowl, mix the chopped ham, bread crumbs, salt, and pepper.

  3. Add the melted butter and moisten the mixture with milk.

Assemble and bake

  1. Half fill greased patty pans with the mixture.

  2. Carefully break an egg on top of each patty, then sprinkle with salt and pepper.

  3. Cover with fine bread or cracker crumbs.

  4. Bake for 8 minutes and serve immediately.

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. Bread + buttertop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together27,232 recipes

    Shared aroma: delta-decalactone (sweet, creamy).

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

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

  3. Ham + breadtop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together2,536 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-acetyl-1-pyrroline (popcorn, roasted).

  4. Bread + milktop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together11,466 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-undecenal (sweet).

  5. Bread + eggtop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together22,662 recipes

    Shared aroma: (e)-2-octenal (fatty, green).

Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs

What each ingredient does

Eggs
Bind the patties and set into a soft topping when baked.
Bread crumbs
Absorb the milk and butter, giving the patties body and a tender structure.
Milk
Moistens the mixture so the patties stay juicy rather than dry.
Butter
Adds richness and fat, carrying flavour and helping the patties brown lightly.
Cooked ham
Provides the main savoury flavour and the body of the patty.

The step that matters

Carefully break an egg on top of each patty. The egg must sit intact on the mixture so it sets into a neat topping; breaking it harshly can tear the yolk or spread white unevenly across the patty.

“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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