Why it works: Champagne and apple share more aroma than cooks usually use. They rank in the top 4% of all ingredient pairs, and 30 recipes mention both. Both carry ethyl isobutyrate, which smells fruity, ethereal. The science ↓
The recipe
Ingredients
Directions
Prepare and bake
Score ham and place on rack in baking pan.
Cover top with 1 cup brown sugar and pour over 1 bottle champagne.
Bake at 325°F for 2 hours.
Make the glaze and finish
Combine remaining bottle champagne, remaining brown sugar, honey, ginger and mustard and bring to rolling boil in saucepan.
Lower heat and simmer while basting ham every 15 minutes until done.
Garnish with pineapple slices and spiced apples, if desired.
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.
-
Champagne + appletop 4% of all pairsAroma overlapstrongMentioned together30 recipes
Shared aroma: ethyl isobutyrate (fruity, ethereal).
-
Champagne + pineappletop 2% of all pairsAroma overlapstrongMentioned together96 recipes
Shared aroma: ethyl isobutyrate (fruity, ethereal).
-
Pineapple + appletop 2% of all pairsAroma overlapstrongMentioned together529 recipes
Shared aroma: ethyl isobutyrate (fruity, ethereal).
-
Honey + appletop 3% of all pairsAroma overlapstrongMentioned together567 recipes
Shared aroma: beta-damascenone (apple, rose).
-
Honey + pineappletop 4% of all pairsAroma overlapstrongMentioned together262 recipes
Shared aroma: ethyl isobutyrate (fruity, ethereal).
Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs
What each ingredient does
- Ham
- Is the main cooked meat that the glaze and champagne flavour and moisten.
- Light brown sugar
- Caramelises on the surface, adding sweetness, colour and a glossy finish.
- Champagne
- Adds acidity and aroma, and its liquid moistens the ham as it cooks and reduces.
- Honey
- Adds sweetness and helps the glaze thicken and brown during basting.
The step that matters
Simmering and basting the glaze. Once the glaze boils, the sugars can burn or turn bitter if the heat is too high. Keeping it at a gentle simmer lets it thicken slowly, so the basting coat stays glossy rather than scorched.
Flavor stand-ins for the pineapple
The recipe marks pineapple as optional. How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (ham, sugar, champagne, honey, ginger, mustard, apple):
- Pineapplethe original
- Pearabout as good a flavor fit
- Grapeabout as good a flavor fit
- Melonabout as good a flavor fit
Fit is the average pairing score against ham, sugar, champagne, honey, ginger, mustard, apple. 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.
You might also like
Illustration
Illustration
Illustration
IllustrationThe Sunday pairing: one pairing, the chemistry behind it, and how to cook it. No spam, unsubscribe anytime.
Prefer an account? Create a free account for sign-in; Pro adds the full results and chemistry.