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Removes of Ham

A ham braised with carrots, onions, celery, herbs, mace, and cloves in broth.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 9 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 ↓

Removes of Ham

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the ham

  1. Scrape off any slimy surface from the ham before soaking.

  2. Soak the ham in a pan filled with cold water. If it is new, soak for a few hours; if seasoned, soak for 24 hours. Foreign hams may need 2 to 4 days. Change the water every 12 hours in winter and twice in summer.

  3. After soaking, boil the ham in water for 1 hour, then scrape and wash it in cold water.

Braise and cool

  1. Place the ham in a braising pan with carrots, onions, celery, herbs, mace, and cloves.

  2. Add enough broth to float the ham and braise gently on the stove for about 4 hours without boiling.

  3. Once done, remove the pan from the heat and let the ham cool in the braise to retain moisture.

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

    Shared aroma: cuminaldehyde (Spicy, cumin).

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

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

  4. Celery + clovetop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together4,668 recipes

    Shared aroma: gamma-decalactone (peach, creamy).

  5. Mace + clovetop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together8,400 recipes

    Shared aroma: methyleugenol (clove, spice).

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

What each ingredient does

Ham
Is the main cut that is softened and flavoured by long soaking and gentle braising.
Broth
Provides liquid for slow, gentle cooking and carries flavour into the meat.
Carrots
Add sweetness and aromatic flavour to the braising liquid.
Onions
Contribute savoury depth and aroma to the braising liquid.
Celery
Adds aromatic, savoury flavour to the braising liquid.

The step that matters

Braise without boiling. Boiling toughens the meat's proteins and can make the ham stringy and dry. Holding the liquid at a gentle simmer keeps the meat tender and moist over the long cook.

Swap the mace

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

  1. Parsleyfits better
  2. Thymefits better
  3. Marjoramfits better
  4. Macethe original

Fit is the average pairing score against ham, carrot, onion, celery, 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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