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Ham Cakes, Baked, for Breakfast or Tea

A baked dish of chopped ham, soaked bread, eggs, and pepper.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 5 ingredients
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Why it works: Ham and bread are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 7% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 2,536 recipes. Both carry 2-acetyl-1-pyrroline, which smells popcorn, roasted. The science ↓

Ham Cakes, Baked, for Breakfast or Tea

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. Chop the ham finely.

  2. Soak the bread in milk.

Mix, bake and serve

  1. Mix the soaked bread with the chopped ham, beaten eggs, and pepper.

  2. Place the mixture in a buttered pudding dish.

  3. Bake until golden brown.

  4. Serve hot.

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

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

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

    Shared aroma: 2-undecenal (sweet).

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

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

  4. Bread + peppertop 16% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together20,964 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).

  5. Ham + eggtop 17% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked 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
Bind the mixture and set into a firm, sliceable cake as they cook.
Bread
Soaked in milk, it absorbs liquid and gives the cakes a soft, tender body.
Milk
Softens the bread and adds moisture so the mixture holds together and stays moist.
Ham
Provides the savoury flavour and makes up the main substance of the cakes.

The step that matters

Bake until golden brown. Eggs set as they heat, so baking too long dries the cakes and makes them tough, while stopping too early leaves the centre wet and unset. Watch the colour and texture rather than just the clock.

“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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