Why it works: Pepper and spinach are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 6% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 3,400 recipes. Both carry nonanal, which smells fat, citrus. The science ↓
To Baxb a Ham
Ingredients
Directions
The book gives no oven temperature. The 350°F (175°C) in the steps was added when the recipe was transcribed, as a starting point.
Prepare the ham
Soak the ham for 1-2 hours depending on its age.
Wipe the ham dry and cover it with a 1-inch thick paste.
Moisten the edges and seal them to prevent gravy from escaping.
Bake and prepare
Bake in a preheated oven at 350°F (175°C) for 3-6 hours based on weight.
Once done, remove the paste and skin while the ham is hot.
Fry and serve
For the ham and eggs, boil slices of ham slightly.
Heat lard in a frying pan, dip ham slices in flour or crackers, and fry until browned.
Sprinkle with pepper and serve with gravy.
In the same pan, fry eggs carefully without breaking the yolks.
Arrange fried eggs around the ham on a serving dish.
Chop and press boiled spinach, place it in the center, and pour gravy over the ham.
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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Pepper + spinachtop 6% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together3,400 recipes
Shared aroma: nonanal (fat, citrus).
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Flour + spinachtop 10% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together1,564 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
-
Pepper + vinegartop 14% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together27,814 recipes
Shared aroma: 4'-methylacetophenone (bitter almond).
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Flour + eggtop 15% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together106,462 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
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Ham + eggtop 17% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together4,526 recipes
Shared aroma: 2,4-decadienal (seaweed).
Flour and egg barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 106,462 recipes: they work on texture and structure more than aroma.
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 slowly baked and then sliced and fried for serving.
- Flour or rolled crackers
- Coat the ham slices, helping them brown crisply when fried in lard.
- Lard
- Fat for frying that browns the coated ham slices and the eggs.
- Eggs
- Fried alongside the ham to make a second dish served on the same platter.
- Spinach
- Boiled, chopped and pressed to form a green base beneath the ham.
The step that matters
Bake in a preheated oven at 350°F (175°C) for 3-6 hours based on weight.. A fully sealed paste crust keeps juices in and heat gentle, so the ham cooks through evenly. If the seal leaks, the meat dries out and gravy escapes.
Swap the spinach
How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (ham, flour, pepper, egg, vinegar):
- Mustardfits better
- Capsicumfits better
- Shallotfits better
- Spinachthe original
Fit is the average pairing score against ham, flour, pepper, egg, vinegar. 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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