Skip to main content
Main

Westphalian Ham

A cured ham simmered with vegetables and spices, then roasted and glazed.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 13 ingredients
Jump to recipe ↓

Why it works: Marjoram and thyme match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 2,225 recipes. Both carry terpineol, which smells pine, woody. The science ↓

Westphalian Ham

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the ham

  1. Soak the ham in cold water for 24 hours.

  2. Drain the ham and cover with fresh water for another 24 hours.

  3. Clean and trim the ham.

Simmer

  1. Place the ham in a saucepan and cover with cold water. Simmer gently for 1 hour.

  2. Transfer the ham to a stewpan on a bed of sliced carrots, onions, and celery.

  3. Add marjoram, thyme, garlic, bay leaves, peppercorns, cloves, and mace.

  4. Pour in enough stock to barely cover the ham and simmer gently until fully cooked, about 5 hours.

  5. Remove from heat and let the ham cool in the liquid.

Finish

  1. Once cool, remove the rind and trim the fat evenly.

  2. Place the ham in the oven for a few minutes.

  3. Press with a dry cloth to remove excess grease.

  4. Glaze the ham or coat it 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. Marjoram + thymetop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together2,225 recipes

    Shared aroma: terpineol (pine, woody).

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

    Shared aroma: myristicin (spice, warm).

  3. Onion + garlictop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together29,058 recipes

    Shared aroma: furaneol (caramel, strawberry).

  4. Carrot + marjoramtop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together687 recipes

    Shared aroma: cuminaldehyde (Spicy, cumin).

  5. Marjoram + clovetop 2% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together1,075 recipes

    Shared aroma: cuminaldehyde (Spicy, cumin).

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

What each ingredient does

Westphalian ham
Provides the main meat and its cured, smoky flavour.
Carrots
Flavour base that perfumes the cooking liquid as it simmers.
Onion
Flavour base that adds savoury sweetness to the cooking liquid.
Celery
Flavour base that adds aromatic depth to the cooking liquid.
Garlic
Adds pungent aroma that mellows during the long simmer.

The step that matters

Simmer gently until fully cooked. Gentle heat cooks the ham evenly and keeps the meat tender. A rolling boil toughens the muscle fibres and can make the surface tough and dry.

Swap the garlic

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (ham, carrot, onion, celery, marjoram, thyme, clove):

  1. Winter savoryfits better
  2. Parsleyfits better
  3. Allspicefits better
  4. Garlicthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against ham, carrot, onion, celery, marjoram, thyme, clove. 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.

More westphalian ham recipes

Croquettes 3 See all 17 →

You might also like

Carrot SoupCarrot Soup134 recipesCream of Celery SoupCream of Celery Soup113 recipesCelery StewCelery Stew25 recipesCelery CroquettesCelery Croquettes16 recipes