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York Ham

York ham simmered with garlic, onion, carrots, turnips, celery, mustard seed, sugar, cloves, ginger, bay leaf, parsley, and Marsala or sherry.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 14 ingredients
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Why it works: Carrot and celery match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 10,173 recipes. Both carry myristicin, which smells spice, warm. The science ↓

York Ham

Oven, in the book's wordsA gentle oven

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the ham

  1. Soak the ham in plenty of cold water for 24 hours.

  2. Scrape and wash the ham well.

  3. Place the ham in a large pot, skin side up, and cover with cold water.

  4. Bring to a boil slowly, then simmer for 1 hour.

  5. Remove the ham and wash it in cold water.

Simmer with flavourings

  1. Return the ham to the pot and cover with stock instead of water.

  2. Add garlic, onion, carrots, turnips, celery, mustard seed, sugar, cloves, ginger, bay leaf, and parsley.

  3. Simmer gently until done, allowing 26 minutes per pound.

  4. Two hours before it's done, pour in the Marsala or sherry.

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 + celerytop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together10,173 recipes

    Shared aroma: myristicin (spice, warm).

  2. Garlic + oniontop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together29,058 recipes

    Shared aroma: furaneol (caramel, strawberry).

  3. Carrot + turniptop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together8,002 recipes

    Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).

  4. Celery + mustardtop 2% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together4,169 recipes

    Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).

  5. Turnip + celerytop 2% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together4,418 recipes

    Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).

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, which is cured and then gently simmered until tender.
Marsala or sherry
Adds a sweet, fortified wine flavour that deepens the braising liquid during the final hours.
Sugar
Adds sweetness and helps the surface of the ham brown and glaze slightly.
Mustard seed
Adds a sharp, pungent note that balances the sweetness of the ham.

The step that matters

Pouring in the Marsala or sherry two hours before the end. Adding the wine too early lets its volatile aromas cook off and can make the flavour harsh or muddy. Adding it late keeps the wine's sweetness and aroma in the finished liquid.

Swap the clove

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (ham, garlic, onion, carrot, turnip, celery, mustard):

  1. Capersfits better
  2. Parsleyfits better
  3. Thymefits better
  4. Clovethe original

Fit is the average pairing score against ham, garlic, onion, carrot, turnip, celery, mustard. 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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