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Ham Rabbit

A toasted bread dish with ham, cheese, cream, and paprika, served hot.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 8 ingredients
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Why it works: Butter and bread are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 7% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 27,232 recipes. Both carry delta-decalactone, which smells sweet, creamy. The science ↓

Ham Rabbit

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the bread

  1. Beat the egg and add the milk.

  2. Soak the bread in the egg and milk mixture, turning occasionally.

  3. Heat the butter in a skillet.

  4. Sauté the soaked bread until lightly browned, then keep warm.

Make the topping

  1. Scald the cream.

  2. Stir in the cheese and ham until the cheese melts.

  3. Add paprika and pour the mixture over the bread.

Serve

  1. Serve immediately.

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

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

  2. Butter + milktop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together81,283 recipes

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

  3. Cheese + breadtop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together2,130 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

Eggs
Bind with milk to form a custard that soaks into the bread and sets when cooked.
Bread
Absorbs the egg and milk mixture, then browns in the butter to form the base.
Butter
Fat for the skillet that browns the soaked bread and adds rich flavor.
Cheese
Melts into the cream to create a smooth, savory sauce over the bread.
Cream
Adds richness and body to the cheese sauce, helping it stay smooth.

The step that matters

Sauté the soaked bread until lightly browned. The bread is saturated with egg and milk, so it needs moderate heat in the butter. Too high a heat burns the outside before the custard sets inside, while too low a heat leaves it soggy.

“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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