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Roast Ham

Roast ham baked after boiling, finished with a butter‑flour gravy and champagne.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 7 ingredients
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Why it works: Butter and flour are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 12% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 124,287 recipes. Both carry isobutyraldehyde, which smells malty, green. The science ↓

Roast Ham

Oven, in the book's wordsA moderate oven

Ingredients

Directions

The book says “a moderate oven”. The 350°F (175°C) in the steps is the modern equivalent, not the book's own figure.

Prepare the ham

  1. Prepare the ham as for boiling and boil for 3 hours.

  2. Remove the skin and place the ham in a baking pan.

Bake the ham

  1. Cook in a moderate oven at 350°F (175°C) for 2 hours.

Make the gravy and serve

  1. In a saucepan, mix the butter and flour until well combined.

  2. Stir constantly over heat until the mixture is dark brown.

  3. Slowly pour in the boiling gravy while stirring continuously.

  4. Let it boil once, season with salt and pepper, and strain.

  5. Add the champagne to the gravy and serve with the 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.

  1. Butter + flourtop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together124,287 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

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

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

  3. Butter + champagnetop 16% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together209 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl octanoate (fruity, wine).

  4. Flour + peppertop 19% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together50,459 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  5. Butter + peppertop 21% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together85,593 recipes

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

Butter and flour barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 124,287 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 cut, cooked by boiling and then baking to become tender and flavourful.
Butter
Carries the flour and cooks into a roux that helps thicken the gravy.
Flour
Thickens the gravy when cooked with butter and blended into the liquid.
Champagne
Adds acidity and a bright, aromatic note to the finished gravy.

The step that matters

Browning the butter and flour. Stirring constantly keeps the roux from scorching and burning. Dark brown colour adds flavour, but going too far gives a bitter taste.

“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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