Why it works: Ham and pepper are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 23% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 6,058 recipes. Both carry 2,4-decadienal, which smells seaweed. The science ↓
Freed Ham
Ingredients
Directions
Soak the raw ham as you would for broiling.
Fry the ham in its own fat until the fat is clear and begins to curl and crisp at the edges.
Serve the ham dry, seasoned with pepper.
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.
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Ham + peppertop 23% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together6,058 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
- Raw ham
- Provides the meat and its own fat, which renders during frying to cook the ham.
The step that matters
Fry the ham in its own fat until the fat is clear and crisp at the edges. Frying slowly lets the fat render out cleanly and the edges brown and crisp. Rushing on high heat can scorch the outside while the fat stays chewy and the center stays underdone.
“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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