Why it works: Onion and leek match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 4% of all ingredient pairs, and 1,326 recipes mention both. Both carry ethyl butyrate, which smells apple, fruity. The science ↓
Skinke I Vin
Ingredients
Directions
Prepare the ham
Loosen the skin from the ham and simmer with the onions and the leek for 1 hour in a roasting pan with all but ½ cup of the wine.
Remove ham from roaster and cut away and discard tough outer skin.
Brown mushrooms in butter.
Stuff and sauce
Cut a slash in the top of the ham sufficiently large to hold the mushroom mixture, water, salt and pepper, then skewer the opening to keep the filling in place.
Make a sauce of the 2 tablespoons of butter, 2 tablespoons of flour and the liquid from the roaster, stirring over a low heat.
Add the reserved ½ cup wine a little at a time and mix well.
Bake and baste
Pour over the ham in the roasting pan and bake until tender (about 25 minutes to the pound) in a preheated 375º oven.
Baste at least every ½ hour with juices from the pan.
This recipe comes from the Recipes Wiki on Fandom and is licensed CC BY-SA 4.0. Our formatting and summaries are shared under the same licence.
Steps grouped into stages for easier reading; the method is the source's own.
Explore the science
The flavor team
The pairs that carry this dish. Each one is judged two ways: how much aroma chemistry they share, and how many recipes mention both.
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Onion + leektop 4% of all pairsAroma overlapstrongMentioned together1,326 recipes
Shared aroma: ethyl butyrate (apple, fruity).
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Mushroom + buttertop 7% of all pairsAroma overlapmoderateMentioned together12,525 recipes
Shared aroma: trans-2-decenal (waxy, orange).
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Leek + flourtop 8% of all pairsAroma overlapstrongMentioned together328 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
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Red wine + mushroomtop 9% of all pairsAroma overlapmoderateMentioned together720 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-methoxy-4-methylphenol (smoky, clove).
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Onion + mushroomtop 10% of all pairsAroma overlapmoderateMentioned together10,626 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
- Smoked ham
- Is the main cut that becomes tender through long, slow simmering and baking.
- Red wine
- Adds acidity and depth, and its liquid forms the braising base and the sauce.
- Mushrooms
- Add savory, earthy flavor to the stuffing filling.
- Butter
- Adds richness and carries flavor when browning the mushrooms and making the sauce.
- Flour
- Thickens the pan liquid into a smooth sauce when cooked with butter.
- Leek
- Contributes mild onion-like sweetness to the braising liquid.
The step that matters
Adding the wine to the flour and butter. Add the wine gradually and stir well so the flour-butter roux dissolves evenly without lumps. Adding it all at once can leave lumps that are hard to smooth out.
Flavor stand-ins for the leek
How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (ham, onion, red wine, mushroom, butter, pepper, flour):
- Shallotbetter flavor fit
- Potatoabout as good a flavor fit
- Chiveabout as good a flavor fit
- Leekthe original
Fit is the average pairing score against ham, onion, red wine, mushroom, butter, pepper, flour. Candidates are from the same food group and used in at least 100 recipes. This compares flavor only: it does not check the job the ingredient does in the dish (bulk, moisture, acidity, structure).
“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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