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A ham roast served with a gravy made from veal bones, bacon rind, herbs, and lemon.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 14 ingredients
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Why it works: Parsley and lemon match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and 14,036 recipes mention both. Both carry beta-phellandrene, which smells minty, terpene. The science ↓

The recipe

Ingredients

Contains: milk (auto-detected from the ingredients and method; we can miss things, so check labels)

Directions

Prepare the ham

  1. Roll the fatty part of the ham tightly and bind it with tape.

  2. Rub the ham with bacon fat.

  3. Roast it over a clear fire, basting frequently for about 30 minutes per pound.

Make the gravy

  1. Fry the bacon rind with the veal bones in a stewpan.

  2. Pour 1½ pints of stock or water over the bones.

  3. Simmer gently for 1 hour.

  4. Add parsley, thyme, lemon rind, and mace.

  5. Simmer until the gravy reduces significantly.

  6. Strain the gravy to remove fat.

  7. Mix 1 teaspoon of corn flour with water and stir it into the gravy.

  8. Boil for 2-3 minutes until thick.

  9. Add a little sugar browning.

  10. Add 2 tablespoons of cream.

  11. Season with pepper and salt to taste.

Serve

  1. Baste the meat with the gravy for about 10 minutes before serving.

  2. Serve the meat on a hot dish.

  3. Strain the gravy over it.

  4. Garnish with sliced lemon.

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 aroma chemistry they share, and how many recipes mention both.

  1. Parsley + lemontop 1% of all pairs
    Aroma overlapstrong
    Mentioned together14,036 recipes

    Shared aroma: beta-phellandrene (minty, terpene).

  2. Parsley + thymetop 1% of all pairs
    Aroma overlapstrong
    Mentioned together9,057 recipes

    Shared aroma: cuminaldehyde (Spicy, cumin).

  3. Thyme + lemontop 2% of all pairs
    Aroma overlapstrong
    Mentioned together3,973 recipes

    Shared aroma: beta-phellandrene (minty, terpene).

  4. Thyme + macetop 5% of all pairs
    Aroma overlapstrong
    Mentioned together2,113 recipes

    Shared aroma: myrcene (balsamic, herbaceous).

  5. Parsley + macetop 5% of all pairs
    Aroma overlapstrong
    Mentioned together4,268 recipes

    Shared aroma: myristicin (spice, warm).

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

What each ingredient does

Fatty part of the ham
Its fat bastes the meat as it roasts, keeping the lean parts moist and flavourful.
Veal bones
Release gelatin and savoury flavour into the stock, giving the gravy body and depth.
Corn flour
Starch thickens the gravy as it boils, giving it a smooth, glossy consistency.
Cream
Adds richness and a softer, rounder mouthfeel to the finished gravy.
Sugar browning
Darkens the gravy's colour and adds a hint of caramel sweetness.

The step that matters

Boil the corn flour gravy for 2-3 minutes. Starch granules only thicken fully once they reach a boil and swell; boiling too briefly leaves the gravy thin and floury-tasting, while long boiling after adding cream can cause it to split.

Flavor stand-ins for the mace

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (ham, veal, parsley, thyme, lemon, corn, flour):

  1. Marjorambetter flavor fit
  2. Basilbetter flavor fit
  3. Sagebetter flavor fit
  4. Macethe original

Fit is the average pairing score against ham, veal, parsley, thyme, lemon, corn, flour. Candidates are from the same food group and used in at least 100 recipes. This compares flavor only: it does not check the job the ingredient does in the dish (bulk, moisture, acidity, structure).

“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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