Name: Lunch Ham with Madeira Sauce
Ingredients: large slices of boiled ham; spinach; brown sauce; Madeira wine

Why it works: Ham and madeira wine work together. They rank in the top 17% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 154 recipes. The science ↓

Lunch Ham with Madeira Sauce

Ingredients

large slices of boiled ham
spinach
brown sauce
Madeira wine

Directions

Cut large, very thin slices of boiled ham.
Prepare a purée of spinach and arrange it on a round dish.
Warm the ham without letting it curl or crisp.
Roll the ham up like a cigarette and lay it around the spinach.
Serve with a well-flavored brown sauce made with Madeira.

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.

Ham + madeira winetop 17% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked together154 recipes
Sauce + madeira winetop 19% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked together230 recipes

Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).
Spinach + saucetop 20% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together756 recipes

Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).
Ham + saucetop 22% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked together1,314 recipes

Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).
Ham + spinachtop 26% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked together144 recipes

Shared aroma: trans-2-decenal (waxy, orange).