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Ham Crootes

A fried bread topping with ham, butter, shallot, egg yolks, cream, and parsley.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 8 ingredients
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Why it works: Shallot and parsley match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 3,737 recipes. Both carry 2,4-decadienal, which smells seaweed. The science ↓

Ham Crootes

Ingredients

Directions

Make the topping

  1. In a skillet, melt the butter over medium heat and fry the shallot until slightly browned.

  2. Add the ham and stir until heated through.

  3. Stir in the egg yolks and cream, season with pepper, and cook until the mixture thickens.

Serve

  1. Spoon the mixture onto the fried bread slices and sprinkle with parsley before serving.

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. Shallot + parsleytop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together3,737 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2,4-decadienal (seaweed).

  2. Parsley + peppertop 2% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together34,122 recipes

    Shared aroma: 4'-methylacetophenone (bitter almond).

  3. Butter + breadtop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together27,232 recipes

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

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

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

  5. Butter + creamtop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together41,516 recipes

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

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

What each ingredient does

Egg yolks
Thicken the mixture as they set, giving it a creamy, spreadable texture.
Butter
Adds fat and richness and helps brown the shallot.
Cooked ham
Provides the savory meaty flavor that forms the main body of the topping.
Cream
Adds moisture and richness, keeping the yolk mixture soft and smooth.
Shallot
Contributes mild, sweet aromatic flavor when softened and lightly browned in butter.

The step that matters

Cook until the mixture thickens. Egg yolks set when heated, so cooking gently and stopping once thickened keeps the mixture creamy. Overheating can scramble the yolks and make them grainy.

Swap the shallot

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (ham, butter, cream, egg, parsley, pepper, bread):

  1. Leekfits about as well
  2. Shallotthe original
  3. Asparagusfits about as well
  4. Potatofits about as well

Fit is the average pairing score against ham, butter, cream, egg, parsley, pepper, bread. Candidates are from the same food group and used in at least 100 recipes.

“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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