Name: Imitation Hams
Ingredients: gum paste; red currant jelly; transparent chocolate icing; sugar; fruits in caramel; almond paste; chocolate icing; pale blush pink icing; ice (pink and white sweet jelly)

Why it works: Red currant and almond share more aroma than cooks usually use. They rank in the top 8% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 90 recipes. Both carry alpha-pinene, which smells pine, turpentine. The science ↓

Imitation Hams

Ingredients

Directions

Shape gum paste into ears and insert into the head.
Imitate tusks and defenses with gum paste and dry.
Hollow out the mouth and color it deep scarlet with royal icing.
Scoop out nostrils from the snout.
Mask the head with a thin layer of red currant jelly.
Cover the head entirely with transparent chocolate icing.
Prepare two oval pieces of white gum paste for eyes, dry on marbles.
Paint the eyeball, dip in boiled sugar for brilliance, and insert into the head.
Place the finished head on an ornamental stand.
Run fruits in caramel, truffles, and cocks' combs on silver skewers and insert into the head.
Hollow out the throat end to receive frozen ice in pink and white layers.
Garnish the base with croutons of pink and white sweet jelly.

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.

Red currant + almondtop 8% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together90 recipes

Shared aroma: alpha-pinene (pine, turpentine).
Chocolate + almondtop 9% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together1,733 recipes

Shared aroma: 2,3-pentanedione (butter, sweet).
Chocolate + sugartop 13% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together15,404 recipes

Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).
Red currant + chocolatetop 17% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together28 recipes

Shared aroma: isoamyl acetate (banana, pear).
Sugar + almondtop 18% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together15,679 recipes

Shared aroma: 1-penten-3-one (fish, pungent).