Why it works: Carrot and celery match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 10,173 recipes. Both carry myristicin, which smells spice, warm. The science ↓
Westphalia Ham, Roasted a LA St. James
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
Prepare the ham according to previous directions.
Steep the ham in mirepoix for the allotted time.
Run a large iron skewer through the ham.
Fasten the skewer with string to the spit.
Reduce the mirepoix.
Cover the underside of the ham with the reduced mirepoix.
Wrap and roast
Wrap the ham in oiled cartridge paper.
Cover the wrapped ham with venison paste.
Tie the wrapped ham with string.
Roast the ham in a 350°F (175°C) oven for about five hours.
After three and a half hours, make a hole in the venison paste.
Infuse the hole with brandy or Malaga wine.
Seal the hole.
Roast for an additional twenty minutes.
Finish and serve
Carefully remove the ham from the spit.
Trim the ham.
Set the ham to dry on a baking sheet in the oven.
Glaze the ham.
Serve the ham with the reserved essence for flavor.
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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Carrot + celerytop 1% of all pairsSmell alikestrongCooked together10,173 recipes
Shared aroma: myristicin (spice, warm).
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Carrot + oniontop 6% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together21,601 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).
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Onion + celerytop 7% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together18,518 recipes
Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).
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Carrot + flourtop 13% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together8,029 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
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Ham + venisontop 14% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together85 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
- Westphalia ham
- Is the main cut of meat that is steeped, roasted and served.
- Mirepoix (carrots, onions, celery)
- Flavours the ham through steeping and a reduced essence that is spread on its underside.
- Brandy or malaga wine
- Adds aroma and flavour when infused into the hole in the venison paste.
- Venison paste (flour and water)
- Forms a protective flour-and-water crust that encloses the ham while it roasts.
The step that matters
Infusing the hole with brandy or Malaga wine. Pouring liquid into a hole in the paste must be done carefully and then sealed, so the liquid stays inside the crust and flavours the ham rather than leaking into the oven.
Swap the onion
How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (ham, carrot, celery, venison, flour, brandy):
- Turnipfits better
- Parsnipfits better
- Shallotfits better
- Onionthe original
Fit is the average pairing score against ham, carrot, celery, venison, flour, brandy. 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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