Name: Ham, Hot, with Madeira
Ingredients: 1 ham; 1 glass Madeira (about ⅓ cup); 1 glass veal stock (about ⅓ cup); sugar; additional veal stock

Why it works: Ham and veal are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 15% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 3,264 recipes. Both carry 2,4-decadienal, which smells seaweed. The science ↓

Ham, Hot, with Madeira

Oven, in the book's wordsA slow oven

Ingredients

Directions

The book says “a slow oven”. The 300°F (150°C) in the steps is the modern equivalent, not the book's own figure.

Prepare the ham

Boil the ham and let it sit in its cooking liquid for 20 minutes.
Place the ham on a dish.
Trim the ham.
Dust a little sugar over it.

Make the gravy

Mix the Madeira with an equal amount of veal stock.
Strain the gravy.
Skim off the fat from the gravy.
Add a little more stock to the gravy.

Glaze and serve

Put the ham in a 300°F (150°C) oven.
Baste the ham with the Madeira‑gravy to glaze.
Serve the gravy separately.
Garnish the ham with vegetables like green peas, spinach, or artichoke bottoms.

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 + vealtop 15% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked together3,264 recipes

Shared aroma: 2,4-decadienal (seaweed).
Ham + sugartop 33% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked together1,084 recipes

Shared aroma: phenylacetaldehyde (hawthorne, honey).
Veal + sugartop 43% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked together1,001 recipes

Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).

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

What each ingredient does

Ham: Is the main cut that is cooked, then glazed and served as the centerpiece.
Madeira: Adds sweet, aromatic flavor to the gravy that coats and glazes the ham.
Veal stock: Provides savory body and gelatin to the Madeira gravy, giving it richness and a glossy texture.
Sugar: Dusted on the ham to add sweetness and help the surface brown in the oven.

The step that matters

Baste the ham with the Madeira‑gravy to glaze. Sugar and wine reduce and caramelize on the surface as the oven heats, so the glaze can burn if it is left too long or the oven runs hot. Basting in stages builds an even, glossy coat instead of a dark, bitter one.

“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.