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A Ham Braised

A ham braised in sherry, served with spinach, greens, beans, or coulis.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 3 ingredients
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Why it works: Ham and sherry work together. They rank in the top 14% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 377 recipes. Both carry 4-ethyl-2-methoxyphenol, which smells smoky, clove. The science ↓

A Ham Braised

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the ham

  1. Soak the ham in warm water the day before cooking.

  2. Place the ham in cold water and boil for about 20 minutes.

  3. Remove the ham from the water.

  4. Take off the rind and trim the ham.

Braise

  1. Put the ham in a braising pan with the sherry and cover tightly.

  2. Cook on low heat for about 4 hours, adjusting time based on the size of the ham.

Finish and serve

  1. Remove the ham and trim it.

  2. Serve with spinach, greens, beans, or coulis.

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. Ham + sherrytop 14% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together377 recipes

    Shared aroma: 4-ethyl-2-methoxyphenol (smoky, clove).

  2. Sherry + spinachtop 19% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together88 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-isobutyl-3-methoxypyrazine (green bell pepper, earthy).

  3. Ham + spinachtop 26% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together144 recipes

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

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

What each ingredient does

Ham
Is the main cut that is softened by soaking, boiling and slow braising.
Sherry
Adds moisture and flavour to the braising liquid as the ham cooks slowly.

The step that matters

Cover the braising pan tightly. A tight lid keeps steam and liquid in the pan, so the ham stays moist over the long, low cook instead of drying out.

Swap the spinach

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

  1. Capsicumfits better
  2. Mustardfits better
  3. Carrotfits better
  4. Spinachthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against ham, sherry. 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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