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Spanish Ham

A ham simmered in vinegar, brown sugar, and vegetables, then finished with spices and a glaze.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 15 ingredients
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Why it works: Shallot and thyme match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 1,476 recipes. Both carry eucalyptol, which smells eucalyptus, herbal. The science ↓

Spanish Ham

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the ham

  1. Soak the ham in cold water for 16-18 hours.

  2. Scrape and trim the ham.

  3. Place the ham in a pot with cold water to simmer.

  4. Add vinegar (or sherry wine) and brown sugar to the water.

  5. Simmer for 5 hours.

Make the braising liquid

  1. In a separate pan, fry the carrots, onions, shallots, bay leaves, thyme, parsley, and celery in butter until slightly colored.

  2. Pour boiling stock or water over the fried vegetables to cover the ham.

  3. Add cloves, mace, and peppercorns.

Cook and finish

  1. Simmer the ham until cooked, about 4 hours.

  2. Let the ham cool in the liquid.

  3. Trim the ham.

  4. Brush with liquid glaze or cover with breadcrumbs.

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. Shallot + thymetop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together1,476 recipes

    Shared aroma: eucalyptol (eucalyptus, herbal).

  2. Carrot + thymetop 3% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together4,563 recipes

    Shared aroma: cuminaldehyde (Spicy, cumin).

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

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

  4. Onion + thymetop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together11,171 recipes

    Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).

  5. Carrot + shallottop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together803 recipes

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

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

What each ingredient does

Spanish ham
Is the main cut that is slowly simmered until tender and cooked through.
Brown sugar
Adds sweetness and helps the surface brown and caramelize during cooking.
Vinegar
Adds acidity that brightens the flavor and balances the sweetness and richness of the ham.
Butter
Carries the aromatic vegetables' flavor and helps them brown lightly before simmering.
Onions
Provide savory sweetness and aroma to the simmering liquid as they cook down.

The step that matters

Simmer the ham gently until cooked. A rolling boil toughens meat proteins and can make the ham dry and stringy, so the liquid should stay at a gentle simmer for even, tender cooking.

Swap the carrot

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (ham, vinegar, sugar, onion, shallot, butter, thyme):

  1. Mustardfits better
  2. Leekfits better
  3. Chivefits better
  4. Carrotthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against ham, vinegar, sugar, onion, shallot, butter, thyme. 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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