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
Prepare the ham
Cut the ham into even slices and remove the rind.
If the ham is hard and salty, soak it in hot water for 10 minutes, then dry it with a cloth.
Cook
Place the ham in a cold frying pan and heat it, turning the slices three or four times while cooking.
Keep a dish warm in front of the fire while poaching the eggs.
Poach the eggs and slip them onto the slices of ham, then serve immediately.
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.
-
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 the main savoury flavour and substance of the dish.
- Eggs
- Set when poached, forming a soft, tender topping over the ham.
The step that matters
Poach the eggs and serve immediately. Eggs begin to firm and lose their soft texture once they cool, so they should be slipped onto the ham and served right away while the yolks are still runny.
“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.
You might also like
Tomato Soup526 recipes
Brown Bread461 recipes
Mutton Broth292 recipes
Yorkshire Pudding264 recipesThe free Flavor Lab newsletter: one surprising pairing a week and the molecular reason it works, in 60 seconds. No spam, unsubscribe anytime.
Prefer an account? Create a free account to save pairings and unlock the full chemistry.