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Essence of Ham

A hearty stew of lean ham, carrots, parsnips, onions, and mushrooms simmered in veal gravy.

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 pieces about ½ inch thick.

  2. Place the ham in a stewpan with the carrots, parsnips, and onions.

Make the stew

  1. Stew until the mixture sticks to the pan but does not burn.

  2. Gradually add the strong veal gravy.

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

  4. Cover and simmer until thick and flavorful.

  5. Strain the mixture.

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 meat and savory flavor that the stew is built around.
Veal gravy
Adds body and savory depth to the liquid as the stew simmers.
Onions
Soften and sweeten as they stew, adding flavor to the base.
Mushrooms
Contribute earthy, savory flavor and aroma to the stew.
Bread crust
Helps thicken the stew as it simmers and softens.
Carrots
Add natural sweetness and body to the stewed base.

The step that matters

Stew until the mixture sticks to the pan but does not burn. Gentle browning of the ham and vegetables builds deep flavor through the Maillard reaction. If the mixture scorches, bitter burnt flavors enter the stew, so heat must be controlled and the pan watched closely.

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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