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Ham Salad

A chilled ham salad made with gelatin, cream, paprika, and mayonnaise.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 9 ingredients
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Why it works: Chicken and ham are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 14% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 1,497 recipes. Both carry 1-octen-3-ol, which smells mushroom, earthy. The science ↓

Ham Salad

Ingredients

Directions

Make the mould

  1. Soak the gelatine in cold water until softened.

  2. Dissolve the gelatine in hot chicken broth.

  3. Strain the mixture over the chopped ham and stir until it begins to thicken.

  4. Fold in the beaten cream, paprika, and salt if needed.

  5. Mould the mixture in a ring mould and refrigerate until set.

Serve

  1. Once set, turn out from the mould and fill the center with lettuce arranged like a cup.

  2. Fill the cup with mayonnaise or serve with French dressing.

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. Chicken + hamtop 14% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,497 recipes

    Shared aroma: 1-octen-3-ol (mushroom, earthy).

  2. Chicken + lettucetop 16% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,421 recipes

    Shared aroma: nonanal (fat, citrus).

  3. Ham + creamtop 22% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together1,370 recipes

    Shared aroma: 1-octen-3-one (mushroom, metallic).

  4. Chicken + creamtop 23% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together6,241 recipes

    Shared aroma: 1-octen-3-one (mushroom, metallic).

  5. Ham + lettucetop 25% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together276 recipes

    Shared aroma: nonanal (fat, citrus).

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

What each ingredient does

Gelatine
Sets the chopped ham and cream mixture so it holds its ring shape when turned out.
Heavy cream
Adds richness and a light, airy texture when beaten and folded in.
Chopped ham
Provides the main savoury flavour and body of the salad.
Chicken broth
Carries flavour into the set mixture and dissolves the gelatine.

The step that matters

Straining and stirring until it begins to thicken. The gelatine must be cool enough to thicken but still fluid enough to fold in the cream and fill the mould evenly. If it sets too far before the cream goes in, the mixture becomes lumpy and the cream deflates; if it is too warm, it will not set firmly in the refrigerator.

Swap the lettuce

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

  1. Onionfits better
  2. Potatofits better
  3. Leekfits better
  4. Lettucethe original

Fit is the average pairing score against chicken, ham, cream. 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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