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Imitation Hams

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 14 ingredients
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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

  1. Shape gum paste into ears and insert into the head.

  2. Imitate tusks and defenses with gum paste and dry them.

  3. Hollow out the mouth and color it deep scarlet with royal icing.

  4. Scoop out nostrils from the snout.

  5. Mask the head with a thin layer of red currant jelly.

  6. Cover the head entirely with transparent chocolate icing.

  7. Prepare two oval pieces of white gum paste for eyes, dry them on marbles, and paint the eyeball.

  8. Dip the dried eye in boiled sugar for brilliance and insert into the head.

  9. Place the finished boar's head on an ornamental stand.

  10. Run fruits in caramel, truffles, and cocks' combs on silver skewers and stick into the head.

  11. Hollow the throat end to receive ice, freeze it stiff in pink and white layers.

  12. 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.

  1. Red currant + almondtop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together90 recipes

    Shared aroma: alpha-pinene (pine, turpentine).

  2. Chocolate + almondtop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,733 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2,3-pentanedione (butter, sweet).

  3. Chocolate + sugartop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together15,404 recipes

    Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).

  4. Red currant + chocolatetop 17% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together28 recipes

    Shared aroma: isoamyl acetate (banana, pear).

  5. Sugar + almondtop 18% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together15,679 recipes

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

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

Swap the red currant

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (chocolate, sugar, truffle, almond):

  1. Vanillafits better
  2. Coconutfits better
  3. Cherryfits better
  4. Red currantthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against chocolate, sugar, truffle, almond. Candidates are from the same food group and used in at least 100 recipes.

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