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To Cook Boiled Ham

A batter of eggs, milk, flour, and salt is fried with thin ham slices to make a savory pancake.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 6 ingredients
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Why it works: Milk and butter are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 7% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 81,283 recipes. Both carry (z)-4-heptenal, which smells biscuit, cream. The science ↓

To Cook Boiled Ham

Ingredients

Directions

Make the batter

  1. In a bowl, whisk together the eggs, milk, flour, and salt to make a batter.

Cook the pancakes

  1. Heat the butter in a dripping pan over medium heat.

  2. Pour some batter into the pan and fry for three minutes.

  3. Layer thin slices of ham over the batter and pour more batter on top.

  4. Fry until golden brown, then cut into squares and flip to fry the other side.

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. Milk + buttertop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together81,283 recipes

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

  2. Flour + buttertop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together124,287 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  3. Milk + flourtop 14% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together78,219 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  4. Egg + flourtop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together106,462 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  5. Butter + hamtop 16% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together5,475 recipes

    Shared aroma: trans-2-decenal (waxy, orange).

Flour and butter barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 124,287 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

Eggs
Bind the batter and help set the pancake structure as it cooks.
Flour
Provides the structure that sets the batter into a sturdy pancake.
Milk
Adds moisture and loosens the batter so it spreads and cooks evenly.
Butter
Fat for frying that promotes even browning and adds rich flavor.
Ham
Adds savory, salty flavor and a meaty filling layered inside the batter.

The step that matters

Flip only after the underside is golden and set. Flipping too early, before the batter has set, can tear the pancake and let the ham and batter slide apart. Waiting until the underside is firm and golden gives a sturdier pancake that holds together when turned.

“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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