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Ham, Flavouring a

A broth made by simmering boiled ham with carrots, turnips, onion, celery, and sweet herbs.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 8 ingredients
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Why it works: Carrot and celery match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 10,173 recipes. Both carry myristicin, which smells spice, warm. The science ↓

Ham, Flavouring a

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. In a large pot, add the ham and cover it with water.

  2. For added flavor, soak the ham in a mixture of vinegar and water before boiling, if desired.

Simmer

  1. Add the carrots, turnips, onion, celery, and sweet herbs to the pot.

  2. Bring to a boil, then reduce heat and simmer until the ham is cooked.

Cool and finish

  1. Once cooked, let the ham cool in the liquid for 1 hour before removing.

  2. Do not leave the ham in the liquid until completely cold.

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

    Shared aroma: myristicin (spice, warm).

  2. Carrot + turniptop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together8,002 recipes

    Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).

  3. Turnip + celerytop 2% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together4,418 recipes

    Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).

  4. Turnip + oniontop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together7,585 recipes

    Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).

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

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

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

What each ingredient does

Ham
Supplies the main meat and salty, savoury flavour to the broth.
Carrots
Add sweetness and aromatic depth to the broth as it simmers.
Turnips
Contribute mild sweetness and body to the broth as they cook.
Onion
Adds savoury depth and aroma that builds the broth's base flavour.

The step that matters

Cooling the ham in the liquid. Letting the ham rest in the cooking liquid keeps it moist and lets flavour settle into the meat. Leaving it too long, until fully cold, risks the meat drying out or the broth turning greasy and firm as fat sets.

Swap the onion

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (ham, carrot, turnip, celery, vinegar):

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

Fit is the average pairing score against ham, carrot, turnip, celery, vinegar. 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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