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To Mince Ham

A ham and cream sauce served over toasted bread.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 7 ingredients
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Why it works: Bread and butter are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 7% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 27,232 recipes. Both carry delta-decalactone, which smells sweet, creamy. The science ↓

To Mince Ham

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the ham

  1. Mince the ham very fine.

Make the topping

  1. In a stewpan, combine the minced ham, veal stock, cream, powdered mace, and Cayenne.

Fry the toast and serve

  1. Cut a slice of bread to fit the dish and fry it in butter until light brown.

  2. Place the toast on a dish and pour the ham mixture over it.

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. Bread + buttertop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together27,232 recipes

    Shared aroma: delta-decalactone (sweet, creamy).

  2. Ham + breadtop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together2,536 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-acetyl-1-pyrroline (popcorn, roasted).

  3. Cream + buttertop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together41,516 recipes

    Shared aroma: delta-dodecalactone (sweet, creamy).

  4. Ham + vealtop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together3,264 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2,4-decadienal (seaweed).

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

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

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

What each ingredient does

Ham
Provides the main savoury flavour and body of the topping.
Veal stock
Adds savoury depth and moisture to the ham mixture.
Cream
Adds richness and a smooth, moist texture to the topping.
Bread
Forms a crisp, golden base that holds the topping.
Butter
Browns the bread in the pan and adds rich flavour.

The step that matters

Frying the bread until light brown. Butter fried bread browns through the Maillard reaction, which gives flavour and a crisp surface. Too little heat leaves it soft and pale, while too much darkens it before the centre is warm and firm enough to hold the topping.

Swap the mace

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (ham, veal, cream, bread, butter):

  1. Nutmegfits better
  2. Celeryfits better
  3. Parsleyfits better
  4. Macethe original

Fit is the average pairing score against ham, veal, cream, bread, butter. 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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