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To Decorate a Ham

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 8 ingredients
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Why it works: Parsley and rice match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 10% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 2,762 recipes. Both carry 4'-methylacetophenone, which smells bitter almond. The science ↓

To Decorate a Ham

Ingredients

Directions

  1. Remove the skin from the cooked ham and wipe off excess grease with a clean cloth.

  2. Trim the ham nicely and glaze it with a brown glaze when cold.

  3. Cut a piece of tissue paper to create a frill and place it around the knuckle of the ham.

  4. Fill a decorating squirt with butter and pipe a border around the ham.

  5. Cut a few vegetable flowers and create a bouquet with parsley, then place it in the center of the ham.

  6. Optionally, decorate the edges of the dish and serve the ham on a napkin.

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. Parsley + ricetop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together2,762 recipes

    Shared aroma: 4'-methylacetophenone (bitter almond).

  2. Butter + parsleytop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together28,563 recipes

    Shared aroma: trans-2-hexenal (green, leafy).

  3. Butter + ricetop 16% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together9,645 recipes

    Shared aroma: trans-2-nonenal (cardboard, fatty).

  4. Ham + buttertop 16% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together5,475 recipes

    Shared aroma: trans-2-decenal (waxy, orange).

  5. Ham + ricetop 17% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together477 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-acetyl-1-pyrroline (popcorn, roasted).

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

Swap the parsley

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (ham, butter, rice):

  1. Cinnamonfits about as well
  2. Parsleythe original
  3. Capersfits about as well
  4. Nutmegfits about as well

Fit is the average pairing score against ham, butter, rice. Candidates are from the same food group and used in at least 100 recipes.

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