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Essence of Ham

A hearty stew of lean ham with carrots, parsnips, onions, veal gravy, mushrooms, truffles, morels, cloves, herbs, bread crust, and leek.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 13 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 ↓

Essence of Ham

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. Cut the ham into 1-inch thick pieces and place them in a stewpan.

  2. Add the carrot, parsnips, and onions.

  3. Stew until they stick to the pan without burning.

Make the stew

  1. Gradually pour in the strong veal gravy.

  2. Add the mushrooms, truffles, morels, cloves, basil, parsley, bread crust, and leek.

  3. Cover and simmer until thick and flavorful.

  4. Strain the mixture before serving.

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. Mushroom + truffletop 4% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,900 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2,4-nonadienal (fatty, green).

  3. Carrot + clovetop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together5,873 recipes

    Shared aroma: cuminaldehyde (Spicy, cumin).

  4. Parsnip + clovetop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together306 recipes

    Shared aroma: myrcene (balsamic, herbaceous).

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

Lean ham
Provides the main body of meat that the stew is built around.
Strong veal gravy
Supplies the liquid base and rich savory flavor that the stew simmers in.
Onions
Soften during stewing and add sweetness and depth to the base.
Mushrooms
Add earthy umami flavor and savory depth to the gravy.
Bread crust
Helps thicken the liquid as it simmers and softens.

The step that matters

Stew until they stick to the pan without burning. The vegetables should caramelize lightly on the pan base, which builds browned flavor. Burning turns that flavor bitter, so heat must be controlled while they stew.

Swap the parsnip

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (ham, carrot, onion, veal, mushroom, truffle, clove):

  1. Leekfits better
  2. Shallotfits better
  3. Turnipfits better
  4. Parsnipthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against ham, carrot, onion, veal, mushroom, truffle, clove. 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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