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Westphalia Ham a L'essence

A braised Westphalia ham cooked with carrots, onions, celery, herbs, cloves, mace, brandy, sherry, and broth, served with Espagnole sauce.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 12 ingredients
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Why it works: Parsley and thyme match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 9,057 recipes. Both carry cuminaldehyde, which smells Spicy, cumin. The science ↓

Westphalia Ham a L'essence

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the ham

  1. Trim and remove the thigh bone from the ham.

  2. Soak the ham in cold water for 2–3 days.

  3. Boil the ham in water for 1 hour.

  4. Wash the ham in cold water and place it in a large braising pan.

Braise

  1. Add carrots, onions, celery, herbs, cloves, and mace.

  2. Moisten with brandy, sherry, and enough broth to float the ham.

  3. Simmer the ham very slowly for 5–6 hours.

  4. Once tender, let the ham sit in its liquid for at least 1 hour.

Glaze and serve

  1. Drain the ham and remove the rind, trimming the fat for a neat appearance.

  2. Glaze the ham and place it in the oven for 5 minutes.

  3. Glaze it again and place it on a serving dish.

  4. Garnish with asparagus‑peas, carrots, or spinach.

  5. Serve with Espagnole sauce mixed with a glass of sherry and some braising liquid.

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 + thymetop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together9,057 recipes

    Shared aroma: cuminaldehyde (Spicy, cumin).

  2. Carrot + parsleytop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together8,053 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2,4-decadienal (seaweed).

  3. Thyme + basiltop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together1,768 recipes

    Shared aroma: terpineol (pine, woody).

  4. Carrot + celerytop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together10,173 recipes

    Shared aroma: myristicin (spice, warm).

  5. Celery + parsleytop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together6,810 recipes

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

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

What each ingredient does

Westphalia ham
Is the main cut that is softened by soaking, boiling and slow simmering until tender.
Brandy
Adds aromatic flavour to the braising liquid that carries into the ham.
Sherry
Adds sweetness and acidity to the braising liquid and to the final sauce.
Carrots
Release sweetness and aroma into the braising liquid, flavouring the ham.
Onions
Release sweetness and savoury aroma into the braising liquid, flavouring the ham.

The step that matters

Simmering the ham very slowly. Slow, gentle simmering over several hours lets connective tissue break down into tender meat. Boiling hard would toughen and dry the outer muscle fibres, leaving the ham stringy.

Swap the onion

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (ham, carrot, celery, parsley, thyme, basil, clove):

  1. Parsnipfits better
  2. Turnipfits better
  3. Leekfits better
  4. Onionthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against ham, carrot, celery, parsley, thyme, basil, clove. 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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