Why it works: Ham and meat are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 13% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 1,095 recipes. Both carry 1-octen-3-one, which smells mushroom, metallic. The science ↓
Cream Gravy
Ingredients
Directions
Cook the ham
Fry the cured ham meat in a skillet.
Make the gravy
Pour in the sweet cream and new milk.
Boil the mixture.
Add salt to taste.
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.
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Ham + meattop 13% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together1,095 recipes
Shared aroma: 1-octen-3-one (mushroom, metallic).
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Cream + milktop 18% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together29,399 recipes
Shared aroma: delta-dodecalactone (sweet, creamy).
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Meat + milktop 18% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together2,703 recipes
Shared aroma: 1-octen-3-one (mushroom, metallic).
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Ham + creamtop 22% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together1,370 recipes
Shared aroma: 1-octen-3-one (mushroom, metallic).
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Ham + milktop 23% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together1,089 recipes
Shared aroma: gamma-nonanolactone (coconut, sweet).
Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs
What each ingredient does
- Cured ham meat
- Provides savoury, salty flavour and fat that browns in the skillet.
- Sweet cream
- Adds richness and body through its milkfat, giving the gravy a fuller texture.
- New milk
- Supplies the liquid that thins the cream into a pourable gravy.
“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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