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
Trim the ham into a round shape and remove the end bone and rind from the knuckle.
Place the ham on a gridiron over the fire until it can be easily lifted.
Soak the ham if necessary.
Marinate
Place the ham in a pan with carrots, onions, thyme, bay leaf, and coriander.
Pour the Madeira wine over the ham.
Cover the pan with a clean cloth and seal the pan tightly.
Let it marinate for 24 hours.
Roast and glaze
Wrap the ham in thick paper and seal the wrapped ham with paste.
Tie the wrapped ham on a spit and roast for 3 hours.
After 3 hours, make a small hole in the paper and pour in more Madeira wine using a funnel.
Seal the hole with paste.
Roast for an additional hour.
Carefully remove the paper, ensuring no gravy escapes.
Mix the gravy with reduced espagnole sauce to glaze the ham before serving.
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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Carrot + thymetop 3% of all pairsSmell alikestrongCooked together4,563 recipes
Shared aroma: cuminaldehyde (Spicy, cumin).
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Thyme + coriandertop 4% of all pairsSmell alikestrongCooked together427 recipes
Shared aroma: beta-phellandrene (minty, terpene).
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Carrot + coriandertop 5% of all pairsSmell alikestrongCooked together1,297 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-isobutyl-3-methoxypyrazine (green bell pepper, earthy).
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Carrot + oniontop 6% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together21,601 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).
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Onion + thymetop 7% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked 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 carries the flavour during long slow cooking.
- Madeira wine
- Adds aromatic depth and acidity, and its moisture helps the ham stay tender while roasting.
- Carrots
- Release sweetness and aromatic flavour into the marinade and the resulting gravy.
- Onions
- Add savoury depth and aroma to the marinade and the resulting gravy.
- Thyme
- Contributes herbal aroma that infuses the meat during marinating.
The step that matters
Sealing the paper wrapping. The paste must close the paper tightly so steam and juices stay inside and keep the ham moist. A leak during roasting lets gravy escape and dries the meat, so the seal and the later hole repair both need care.
Swap the coriander
How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (ham, carrot, onion, thyme, madeira wine):
- Marjoramfits better
- Parsleyfits better
- Celeryfits better
- Corianderthe original
Fit is the average pairing score against ham, carrot, onion, thyme, madeira wine. 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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