Name: Roast Ham with Champagne Sauce
Ingredients: 7 lb ham; 3/4 pt American champagne; Onions, bread crumbs, and seasonings

Why it works: Ham and bread are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 7% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 2,536 recipes. Both carry 2-acetyl-1-pyrroline, which smells popcorn, roasted. The science ↓

Roast Ham with Champagne Sauce

Ingredients

7 lb ham
3/4 pt American champagne
Onions, bread crumbs, and seasonings

Directions

Cook the ham as directed on page 121.
Make the sauce as directed for Madeira Sauce, substituting ½ cup of native Champagne for the Madeira wine.
Serve as directed on page 122.

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.

Ham + breadtop 7% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together2,536 recipes

Shared aroma: 2-acetyl-1-pyrroline (popcorn, roasted).
Onion + breadtop 15% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together8,676 recipes

Shared aroma: 2,4-decadienal (seaweed).
Ham + oniontop 18% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked together4,159 recipes

Shared aroma: gamma-nonanolactone (coconut, sweet).
Champagne + breadtop 22% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together21 recipes

Shared aroma: ethyl octanoate (fruity, wine).
Ham + champagnetop 24% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together45 recipes

Shared aroma: 4-ethyl-2-methoxyphenol (smoky, clove).