Name: To Fry Ham
Ingredients: ham; ½ cup milk; 2 teaspoons flour; 1 teaspoon sugar

Why it works: Milk and flour are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 14% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 78,219 recipes. Both carry isobutyraldehyde, which smells malty, green. The science ↓

To Fry Ham

Ingredients

ham
½ cup milk
2 teaspoons flour
1 teaspoon sugar

Directions

Prepare the ham

Parboil the ham and drain it well.
Fry the ham until it is a light brown.

Make and serve the gravy

In a separate pan, mix the milk, flour, and sugar to make a gravy.
Pour the gravy over the fried ham.

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.

Milk + flourtop 14% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked together78,219 recipes

Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
Flour + sugartop 15% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together92,116 recipes

Shared aroma: phenylacetaldehyde (hawthorne, honey).
Milk + sugartop 18% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked together77,875 recipes

Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).
Ham + milktop 23% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together1,089 recipes

Shared aroma: gamma-nonanolactone (coconut, sweet).
Ham + flourtop 33% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked together2,516 recipes

Shared aroma: phenylacetaldehyde (hawthorne, honey).

Milk and flour barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 78,219 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

Ham: Is the main protein; frying browns its surface and adds savory flavor.
Milk: Forms the liquid base of the gravy, giving it body and a creamy texture.
Flour: Thickens the milk as it heats, giving the gravy a smooth, coating consistency.
Sugar: Adds a little sweetness that balances the savory ham and gravy.

“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.