Why it works: Egg and ham 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 ↓
Egg Omelet with Ham
Ingredients
Directions
Prepare
Beat the eggs in a bowl until well combined.
Finely chop the lean ham and mix it into the eggs.
Cook
Heat lard in a skillet over medium-high heat.
Pour the egg and ham mixture into the skillet and cook until set.
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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Egg + hamtop 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
- Eggs
- Set into a tender structure when heated, forming the body of the omelet.
- Lean ham
- Adds savory flavor and chew to the eggs.
The step that matters
Cooking until set. Eggs turn from liquid to firm as their proteins coagulate with heat. Cooking too hot or too long makes them tough and dry, while stopping before they set leaves the middle 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.
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