Name: Ragout of Ham with Sweet Sauce
Ingredients: slices of raw ham; 2 tablespoons sugar; 1 teaspoon cinnamon; 1 powdered macaroon; ⅓ cup red wine; ¼ teaspoon crushed white pepper; juice of 1 orange

Why it works: Cinnamon and orange match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 3% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 3,437 recipes. Both carry guaiacol, which smells smoky, sweet. The science ↓

Ragout of Ham with Sweet Sauce

Ingredients

Directions

Fry the slices of raw ham until cooked.
In a saucepan, combine sugar, cinnamon, powdered macaroon, red wine, and crushed white pepper.
Add the fried ham slices to the sauce and heat together.
Stir in the juice of the orange and serve.

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.

Cinnamon + orangetop 3% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together3,437 recipes

Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).
Sugar + cinnamontop 10% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked together30,779 recipes

Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).
Red wine + orangetop 15% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together288 recipes

Shared aroma: beta-damascenone (apple, rose).
Cinnamon + red winetop 18% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together312 recipes

Shared aroma: ethyl cinnamate (sweet, balsamic).
Sugar + orangetop 20% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked together19,212 recipes

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

Sugar and cinnamon barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 30,779 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

Raw ham: Provides the savory meat base that is cooked and then warmed in the sauce.
Sugar: Adds sweetness to balance the wine and spices in the sauce.
Powdered macaroon: Thickens the sauce slightly and adds a toasty almond-like sweetness.
Red wine: Adds acidity and depth of flavour to the sauce.
Orange juice: Brightens the sauce with citrus acidity and fruitiness.

Swap the white pepper

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (ham, sugar, cinnamon, red wine, orange):

Clovefits better
Nutmegfits better
Allspicefits better
White pepperthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against ham, sugar, cinnamon, red wine, orange. 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.