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Ham Roasted with Madeira

A ham roasted with Madeira wine, carrots, onions, thyme, bay leaf, coriander, and glazed with reduced espagnole sauce.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 10 ingredients
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Why it works: Carrot and thyme match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 3% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 4,563 recipes. Both carry cuminaldehyde, which smells Spicy, cumin. The science ↓

Ham Roasted with Madeira

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the ham

  1. Trim the ham into a uniform shape, remove the end bone, and take off the rind from the knuckle.

  2. Place the ham on a grill over the fire until it can be easily lifted.

  3. If necessary, soak the ham.

Marinate

  1. Place the ham in a pan with sliced carrots, onions, thyme, bay leaf, and coriander.

  2. Pour the Madeira wine over the ham.

  3. Cover the pan with a clean cloth and seal it tightly.

  4. Let it marinate for 24 hours.

Roast and serve

  1. Wrap the ham in thick paper, sealing it with paste to enclose it completely.

  2. Tie the wrapped ham on a spit and roast it for 3 hours.

  3. After 3 hours, make a small hole in the paper and pour in more Madeira wine using a funnel. Seal the hole with paste.

  4. Continue roasting for another hour.

  5. Once done, carefully remove the paper to retain the gravy.

  6. Mix the gravy with reduced espagnole sauce.

  7. Glaze the ham.

  8. Serve.

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. Carrot + thymetop 3% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together4,563 recipes

    Shared aroma: cuminaldehyde (Spicy, cumin).

  2. Thyme + coriandertop 4% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together427 recipes

    Shared aroma: beta-phellandrene (minty, terpene).

  3. Carrot + coriandertop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together1,297 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-isobutyl-3-methoxypyrazine (green bell pepper, earthy).

  4. Carrot + oniontop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together21,601 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).

  5. Onion + thymetop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together11,171 recipes

    Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).

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

What each ingredient does

Ham
Forms the main body of the dish and is the meat that absorbs the marinade and gravy.
Madeira wine
Adds aromatic sweetness and acidity, flavouring the ham during marinating and roasting.
Carrots
Release sugars and aroma into the marinade, adding flavour to the gravy.
Onions
Release sugars and aroma into the marinade, adding savoury depth to the gravy.
Reduced espagnole sauce
Thickens and enriches the gravy, giving the glaze body and a rich, savoury finish.

The step that matters

Sealing the paper wrap. The paste must enclose the ham completely so that moisture and juices stay inside during the long roast. Gaps let the gravy drain away, leaving the ham dry and the sauce thin.

Swap the coriander

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (ham, carrot, onion, thyme, madeira wine, sauce):

  1. Marjoramfits better
  2. Parsleyfits better
  3. Celeryfits better
  4. Corianderthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against ham, carrot, onion, thyme, madeira wine, sauce. Candidates are from the same food group and used in at least 100 recipes.

“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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