Name: Stuffed Ham
Ingredients: 1 piece of ham (thick part); dressing for turkey (seasoned with pepper and sage); thick cloth for tying

Why it works: Pepper and sage match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 3% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 5,388 recipes. Both carry beta-phellandrene, which smells minty, terpene. The science ↓

Stuffed Ham

Ingredients

1 piece of ham (thick part)
dressing for turkey (seasoned with pepper and sage)
thick cloth for tying

Directions

Cut a square piece from the thick part of the ham.
Use a pointed stick to punch holes in the meat.
Fill the holes with the turkey dressing.
Tie the ham in a thick cloth.
Boil for 3 to 4 hours.
Let it cool, then cut into slices about ½ inch thick.
Optionally, bake and serve warm.

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.

Pepper + sagetop 3% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together5,388 recipes

Shared aroma: beta-phellandrene (minty, terpene).
Turkey + sagetop 9% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together154 recipes

Shared aroma: 2-hexenal (green, leafy).
Ham + turkeytop 15% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked together303 recipes

Shared aroma: trans-2-decenal (waxy, orange).
Turkey + peppertop 15% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together1,636 recipes

Shared aroma: myristicin (spice, warm).
Ham + peppertop 23% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked together6,058 recipes

Shared aroma: 2,4-decadienal (seaweed).