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Ham Steaks

Ham steaks cooked with flour, water, tomato sauce, and cayenne pepper.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 5 ingredients
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Why it works: Tomato and pepper are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 7% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 17,923 recipes. Both carry 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine, which smells earthy, pea. The science ↓

Ham Steaks

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare and cook

  1. Cut thick slices from the York ham.

  2. Dredge the slices with flour.

  3. Place them in a frying pan with 1 cup of water.

  4. Cook slowly, turning two or three times until light brown.

  5. Transfer to a hot dish.

Make the sauce and serve

  1. Thicken the cooking liquid with a little tomato sauce.

  2. Pour the thickened sauce over the ham.

  3. Sprinkle with cayenne pepper and serve.

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. Tomato + peppertop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together17,923 recipes

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

  2. Tomato + saucetop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together5,469 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).

  3. Flour + saucetop 18% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together8,078 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).

  4. Flour + peppertop 19% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together50,459 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  5. Ham + saucetop 22% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together1,314 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).

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

What each ingredient does

York ham
Main protein; slow cooking keeps the thick slices tender as the surface browns.
Flour
Forms a coating that browns in the pan and helps thicken the cooking liquid.
Tomato sauce
Adds acidity and colour to the cooking liquid, which is thickened into the sauce.

The step that matters

Cook slowly, turning two or three times until light brown. Gentle heat lets the thick slices cook through without drying out, while the floured surface browns evenly. Rushing with high heat can scorch the flour coating before the ham is done.

Swap the tomato

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

  1. Mustardfits better
  2. Shallotfits better
  3. Capsicumfits better
  4. Tomatothe original

Fit is the average pairing score against ham, flour, sauce, pepper. 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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