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Ham to Braize

A ham braised with beef, carrots, onions, parsnips, sweet herbs, and allspice.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 8 ingredients
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Why it works: Carrot and parsnip match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 1,097 recipes. Both carry 2-isobutyl-3-methoxypyrazine, which smells green bell pepper, earthy. The science ↓

Ham to Braize

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. Clean the ham well.

  2. Place the ham in a pot and cover with water or broth.

Braise

  1. Add the beef, carrots, onions, parsnips, sweet herbs, and allspice.

  2. Boil gently for 4 hours, or 6 hours for a large ham.

Finish

  1. Remove the skin and glaze 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. Carrot + parsniptop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together1,097 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-isobutyl-3-methoxypyrazine (green bell pepper, earthy).

  2. Parsnip + allspicetop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together54 recipes

    Shared aroma: beta-phellandrene (minty, terpene).

  3. Carrot + allspicetop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together1,021 recipes

    Shared aroma: beta-phellandrene (minty, terpene).

  4. Carrot + oniontop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together21,601 recipes

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

  5. Beef + oniontop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together17,092 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
Provides the main meat and flavor that the long gentle simmer tenderizes.
Leg or shin of beef
Breaks down its connective tissue over long cooking, adding richness and body to the liquid.
Carrots
Add sweetness and aromatic flavor to the cooking liquid.
Onions
Contribute savory depth and sweetness as they soften during simmering.
Parsnips
Add earthy sweetness and body to the braising liquid.

The step that matters

Boil gently for the full time. A gentle simmer lets collagen in the ham and beef slowly break down into tender meat. Boiling hard toughens muscle fibers and can leave the meat stringy, so keep the liquid at a quiet simmer for the whole stated time.

Swap the allspice

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (ham, beef, carrot, onion, parsnip):

  1. Celeryfits better
  2. Parsleyfits better
  3. Thymefits better
  4. Allspicethe original

Fit is the average pairing score against ham, beef, carrot, onion, parsnip. 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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