Name: Ham with Parsley Sauce
Ingredients: raw ham; parsley; vinegar; rose or garlic (optional)

Why it works: Parsley and vinegar are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 16% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 6,477 recipes. Both carry 4'-methylacetophenone, which smells bitter almond. The science ↓

Ham with Parsley Sauce

Ingredients

raw ham
parsley
vinegar
rose or garlic (optional)

Directions

Cut the raw ham into very thin slices and remove the rind.
Fry the ham in a dry pan until cooked through.
In a separate pan, fry the parsley in vinegar, adding rose or garlic for flavor if desired.
Serve the ham with the parsley sauce on top.

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.

Parsley + vinegartop 16% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together6,477 recipes

Shared aroma: 4'-methylacetophenone (bitter almond).
Ham + vinegartop 22% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together737 recipes

Shared aroma: 3-methylbutanol (malty, whiskey).
Ham + parsleytop 24% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked together3,249 recipes

Shared aroma: 2,4-decadienal (seaweed).
Parsley + rosetop 24% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked together33 recipes

Shared aroma: alpha-pinene (pine, turpentine).
Vinegar + rosetop 27% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked together96 recipes

Shared aroma: beta-damascenone (apple, rose).