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Ham Cake

A baked cake made from finely ground ham, pepper, mixed spice, and clarified butter.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 4 ingredients
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Why it works: Ham and butter are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 16% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 5,475 recipes. Both carry trans-2-decenal, which smells waxy, orange. The science ↓

Ham Cake

Ingredients

Directions

The book gives no oven temperature. The 350°F (175°C) in the steps was added when the recipe was transcribed, as a starting point.

Prepare the mixture

  1. Pound the remains of a dry ham very finely with all the fat in a mortar.

  2. Season the mixture with pepper and mixed spice.

  3. Add enough clarified butter to make the mixture moist.

Bake and serve

  1. Place the mixture into a mold and bake in the oven at 350°F (175°C) for about 30 minutes.

  2. Prepare the ham cake the day before serving.

  3. To turn it out properly, place the mold in warm water for a few minutes.

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

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

  2. Pepper + buttertop 21% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together85,593 recipes

    Shared aroma: trans-2-nonenal (cardboard, fatty).

  3. Ham + peppertop 23% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together6,058 recipes

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

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

What each ingredient does

Remains of a ham
Provides the main body and the savory, salty flavor of the cake.
Clarified butter
Adds moisture and richness so the finely pounded mixture holds together.

The step that matters

Add enough clarified butter to make the mixture moist. Fat binds the finely pounded ham particles. If the mixture is too dry, the cake crumbles when turned out, and if it is too loose, it will not hold its shape while baking.

“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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