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Ham, Minced

A sauce of finely minced ham, cayenne pepper, mace, cream, and veal stock served over buttered toast.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 6 ingredients
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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, Minced

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. Mince the cooked ham very finely.

  2. Mix the minced ham with cayenne pepper and powdered mace.

Make the creamed ham

  1. In a saucepan, combine the ham mixture with cream and veal stock.

  2. Heat over low heat for a few minutes until hot, but do not let it boil.

Serve

  1. Serve the mixture on buttered toast.

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. Ham + vealtop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together3,264 recipes

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

  2. Pepper + macetop 16% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together12,257 recipes

    Shared aroma: myristicin (spice, warm).

  3. Mace + vealtop 18% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together3,761 recipes

    Shared aroma: alpha-pinene (pine, turpentine).

  4. Mace + creamtop 18% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together4,009 recipes
  5. Pepper + vealtop 19% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together10,049 recipes

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

Pepper and mace barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 12,257 recipes: they work on texture and structure more than aroma.

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

What each ingredient does

Cooked ham
Provides the main body and meaty flavour of the dish.
Cream
Adds richness and a smooth, creamy texture to the mixture.
Veal stock
Adds savoury depth and moisture, loosening the ham into a spoonable mixture.

The step that matters

Heating without boiling. Cream and stock can curdle or separate when boiled, and the proteins in the cream tighten at high heat, leaving a grainy texture. Gentle low heat keeps the mixture smooth and creamy.

Swap the mace

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (ham, pepper, cream, veal):

  1. Celeryfits better
  2. Nutmegfits better
  3. Parsleyfits better
  4. Macethe original

Fit is the average pairing score against ham, pepper, cream, veal. 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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