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Ham with Windsor Beans

A braised ham served with Windsor beans in bechamel sauce, garnished with parsley and pepper.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 7 ingredients
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Why it works: Parsley and pepper match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 2% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 34,122 recipes. Both carry 4'-methylacetophenone, which smells bitter almond. The science ↓

Ham with Windsor Beans

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the ham

  1. Clean and trim the ham neatly.

  2. Braise the ham with Sherry wine and beef broth until nearly done.

  3. Remove the skin and keep the ham hot in the braising pan.

Make the glaze and serve

  1. Strain and skim the braising liquid, then reduce it until it becomes a glaze.

  2. Glaze the ham and serve it with the Windsor beans mixed with bechamel, parsley, and pepper.

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. Parsley + peppertop 2% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together34,122 recipes

    Shared aroma: 4'-methylacetophenone (bitter almond).

  2. Beans + parsleytop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together1,376 recipes

    Shared aroma: linalool (floral, citrus).

  3. Beef + peppertop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together18,971 recipes

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

  4. Beans + peppertop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together4,733 recipes

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

  5. Beef + beanstop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,134 recipes

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

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

What each ingredient does

Ham
Main protein; braising keeps it moist and tender while the glaze coats its surface.
Sherry wine
Adds acidity and aromatic depth to the braising liquid, which becomes the glaze.
Beef broth
Provides moisture and savory flavor during braising, concentrating into the glaze when reduced.
Windsor beans
Supply the starchy, tender body of the side dish, softened by boiling.
Bechamel sauce
Adds richness and creamy moisture that binds the beans together.

The step that matters

Reducing the braising liquid into a glaze. If reduced too little, the glaze stays thin and runs off; if reduced too far, it turns sticky and salty. Straining and skimming first removes fat and solids that would make it cloudy and greasy.

Swap the beans

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (ham, sherry, wine, beef, sauce, parsley, pepper):

  1. Beansthe original
  2. Chestnutfits about as well
  3. Peasfits less well
  4. Lentilsfits less well

Fit is the average pairing score against ham, sherry, wine, beef, sauce, parsley, pepper. 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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