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Ham, Salt Pork and Bacon

A sandwich made with finely chopped ham, mustard, pepper, vinegar, and buttered bread.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 7 ingredients
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Why it works: Ham and bread are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 7% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 2,536 recipes. Both carry 2-acetyl-1-pyrroline, which smells popcorn, roasted. The science ↓

Ham, Salt Pork and Bacon

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the ham

  1. If the ham is very salty, soak it in cold water for 24 hours.

  2. Put the soaked ham into cold water, bring it slowly to a boil, and simmer for half a day.

Make and serve the sandwiches

  1. For sandwiches, chop ½ lb. of ham finely, season with mustard, pepper, and vinegar.

  2. Spread the mixture between slices of buttered bread.

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 + breadtop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together2,536 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-acetyl-1-pyrroline (popcorn, roasted).

  2. Mustard + vinegartop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together14,067 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  3. Mustard + peppertop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together15,430 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).

  4. Pepper + vinegartop 14% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together27,814 recipes

    Shared aroma: 4'-methylacetophenone (bitter almond).

  5. Ham + mustardtop 14% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together747 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-acetyl-1-pyrroline (popcorn, roasted).

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

What each ingredient does

Ham
Provides the main savory meat flavor and the bulk of the sandwich filling.
Mustard
Adds sharp, pungent flavor that cuts through the richness of the ham.
Vinegar
Adds acidity that brightens the flavor of the chopped ham.
Buttered bread
Adds fat and softness, and holds the filling together.

The step that matters

Soaking the salty ham. Soaking in cold water draws out excess salt from cured ham. If skipped, the finished filling can taste too salty, so the soak should run the full 24 hours before cooking.

Swap the mustard

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

  1. Capsicumfits about as well
  2. Mustardthe original
  3. Tomatofits less well
  4. Shallotfits less well

Fit is the average pairing score against ham, bread, pepper, 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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