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Ham with Currant Jelly

Ham slices coated with mustard and cayenne, served hot with a butter‑currant jelly sauce.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 5 ingredients
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Why it works: Mustard and pepper are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 9% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 15,430 recipes. Both carry 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine, which smells earthy, pea. The science ↓

Ham with Currant Jelly

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the ham

  1. Spread each slice of ham with a thin layer of mustard and a dash of cayenne pepper.

Cook and serve

  1. In a small pan, melt the butter and currant jelly together.

  2. Add enough ham slices to cover the dish and let them brown slightly.

  3. Serve very hot.

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

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

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

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

  3. Ham + buttertop 16% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together5,475 recipes

    Shared aroma: trans-2-decenal (waxy, orange).

  4. Butter + curranttop 17% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together7,856 recipes

    Shared aroma: isoamyl acetate (banana, pear).

  5. Pepper + buttertop 21% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together85,593 recipes

    Shared aroma: trans-2-nonenal (cardboard, fatty).

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

What each ingredient does

Cold boiled ham
Forms the main body of the dish and browns lightly in the pan.
Currant jelly
Adds sweetness and a glossy glaze that clings to the ham as it heats.
Butter
Melts with the jelly to make a smooth fat base that helps the ham brown.
Made mustard
Adds sharp, tangy flavour that balances the sweetness of the jelly.

The step that matters

Browning the ham slices. Ham should only brown slightly over moderate heat. Sugars in the jelly can scorch quickly, turning bitter and dark before the ham is heated through, so the slices need watching.

Swap the currant

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

  1. Lemonfits better
  2. Limefits better
  3. Figfits better
  4. Currantthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against ham, mustard, pepper, butter. 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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